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TONGUE. OF FIRE; 

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EDITED BY THOMAS 0. SUMMERS, D.D. 

* 



BY 

WILLIAM ARTHUR. 

»» ' 

AUTHOR OF “THE SUCCESSFUL MERC 



Nasi)MIR, SRtttt.: 

PUBLISHED BY E. STEVENSON & E. A. OWEN, AGENTS 

FOR THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH. 

1857. 




[n Exchange; 
fo u}M tJ nivoreity 
MAY^ - 1934 



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PRINTED BY A. A. STITT, 

SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, NASHVILLE, TENN. 


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TO MY BELOVED AND HONORED TUTOR IN THEOLOGT, 


THE REV. DOCTOR HANNAH 









The Reverend William Arthur scarcely needs an 
introduction to American readers. The author of that 
great “ commercial biography,” The Successful Merchant , 
and of other works which have had an extensive circu¬ 
lation on this side of the Atlantic, and one of the depu¬ 
tation that recently visited the United States, on behalf 
of the Wesleyan Church-extension enterprise in Ireland, 
his name is not unfamiliar in this country. 

Mr. Arthur is a native of Ireland. He entered the 
Methodist ministry—in which he has been employed for 
eighteen years—at an early age. He has been active 
and laborious as a preacher and a writer, and at present 
occupies the post of one of the general secretaries of 
the Wesleyan Missionary Society. Notwithstanding his 
comparative youth, he was elected to fill a vacancy in 
“ the legal hundred” at the late session of the Wesleyan 
Conference in Bristol—an indication of the high esteem 
in which his talents and usefulness are held by his breth¬ 
ren in the ministry. 

We will not forestall the reader’s judgment by a 
review of the work before him. If he be a man of 
evangelical tastes, and can, withal, relish the classical 

(vii) 



INTRODUCTION. 


viii 

eloquence of one of the best writers of th< age, he will 
not be put to sleep by “The Tongue of Fire.” The 
design of this volume is to rouse the Church to action. 
Its utterances are like the staccato notes of the priestly 
trumpet, summoning the hosts of Israel to battle. It 
calls for a revival of Christianity according to the 
pentecostal type—not the poly glottal endowment, yet 
“the tongue” — not the visible flame, yet the “fix*e.” 
The scope of the volume might lead one to lay undue 
stress on aggressive, converting agencies, and immedi¬ 
ate, prodigious results, were it not for the specific im¬ 
portance which it attaches to that internal economy of 
the Church by which her members “ edify themselves in 
love.” Christian fellowship is here very properly con¬ 
sidered as essential to the very being, not merely the 
prosperity, of the Church. Mr. Arthur’s creed knows 
nothing about a “ holy Catholic Church,” apart from 
“the communion of saints.” His pentecostal Chris¬ 
tians are all “filled with the Spirit”—devout, zealous, 
joyful believers; and he would have all who profess 
and call themselves Christians to be just like the pente¬ 
costal Christians. 

The work was so written as to require scarcely any 
verbal changes in preparing it for the sphere of useful¬ 
ness to which it is now introduced by 

SI )c Gtbitor. 

Nashville, Tenn., September 12,1856. 


fnfun. 


?Jr - m # 

The following pages are the fruit of medita¬ 
tions entered upon with a desire to lessen the 
distance painfully felt ’lo exist between my own 
life and ministry and those of the primitive Chris¬ 
tians. This fact may, in some measure, account 
for the plan of the work. Many topics which 
would have been fully discussed in a treatise on 
the work of the Holy Spirit, or on the character 
and usages of the primitive Christians, are passed 
by, or very slightly touched; while some others 
have greater prominence than would have been 
given to them in such a work. 

As to the mode of conceiving of events and 
characteristics, nothing has been adopted with- 

(ix) 


X 


PREFACE. 


out deliberation. In several cases I should have 
felt interest in discussing other modes of con¬ 
ceiving them; but this would have diverted me 
from the direct practical aim with which I set 
out. 

The work has been interrupted by travel and 
sickness; and, at one time, seemed likely to be 
cut short by death. Spared to complete it, 
though feeling how far it falls short even of my 
own ideal, I humbly trust it may not be use¬ 
less. 

Kensington, April 24th, 1856. 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE PROMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 

When John the Baptist was going round 
S Judea, shaking the hearts of the people with a 
* call to repent, they said, “ Surely this must be 
the Messiah for whom we have waited so long.” 
“No,” said the strong-spoken man, “I am not 
the Christ; (John i. 20;) but One mightier than 
I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not 
worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with 
the Holy Ghost and with fire.” (Luke iii. 16.) I 
This last expression might have conveyed some 
idea of material burning to any people but 
Jews; but in their minds it would awaken other 
thoughts. It would recall the scenes when their 
father Abraham asked Him who promised that 
he should inherit the land wherein he was a 

( 11 ) 


12 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


stranger, “Lord, whereby shall I know that I 
shall inherit it ?" The answer came thus *. he 
was standing under the open sky at night, watch¬ 
ing by cloven sacrifices, when, “behold a smok¬ 
ing furnace and a burning lamp that passed be¬ 
tween those pieces" of the victims. (Gen. xv. 
17.) It would recall the fire which Moses saw 
in the bush, which shone, and awed, and hal¬ 
lowed even the wilderness, but did not consume; 
the fire which came in the day of Israel's deliv¬ 
erance, as a light on their way, and continued 
with them throughout the desert journey; the 
fire which descended on the Tabernacle in the 
day in which it was reared up, and abode upon it 
continually; which shone in the Shechinaln; 
which touched the lips of Isaiah; which flamed 
in the visions’of Ezekiel; and which was yet 
again promised to Zion, not only in her public 
but in her family shrines, when “ the Lord will 
create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, 
and upon all her assemblies, a cloud and smoke 
by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by 
night." 

In the promise of a baptism of fire they would 
at once recognize the approach of new manifesta¬ 
tions of th q power and presence of God ; for that 
was ever the purport of this appearance in “ the 
days of the right hand of the Most High." 


THE PROMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 13 


Among the multitude who flocked to John came 
one strange Man, whom he did not altogether 
know; yet he knew that he was full of grace and 
wisdom, and in favor with God and man. He felt 
that himself rather needed to be baptized of one 
so pure than to baptize him; but he waived his 
feeling, and fulfilled his ministry. As they re¬ 
turned from the water-side, the heavens opened: 
a bodily shape, as of a dove, came down and 
rested on the stranger. At the same time a 
voice from the excellent glory said, “ This is my 
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear 
ye Him.” 

John said, “I knew him not; but He that 
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto 
me, Upon whom thoushalt see the Spirit descend¬ 
ing, and remaining on him, the same is he which 
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” Therefore, 
when he saw him walking, he pointed his own 
disciples to him, and said, that this was He. 
They heard the word, and pondered. The next 
day, again, John, seeing him at a distance, said, 
“ Behold the Lamb of God !” Now, two of his 
followers went after the stranger, to seek at his 
hand the baptism which John could not give— 
the baptism of fire. They were joined by others 
For months, for years, they companied with him 
2 


14 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


They saw his life : a life as of the Only-begotten 
Son of God. They heard his words : such words 
as “ never man spake.” They saw his works: 
signs, and wonders, and great miracles, before all 
the people. Yet they received not the baptism 
of fire ! 

He began to speak frequently of his departure 
from them; but his mode of describing it was 
strange. He was to leave them, and yet not to for¬ 
sake them; to go away, and yet to be with them; 
to go, and yet to come to them. They were to 
be deprived of him, their Head, yet orphans they 
should not be. Another was to come, yet not 
another; a Comforter from the Father, from him¬ 
self; whom, not as in his case, the world could nei¬ 
ther know nor see , but whom they should know , 
though they could not see. (John xiv. 17.) His 
own presence with them was a privilege which no 
tongue could worthily tell. Blessed were their 
eyes for what they saw, and their ears for what 
they heard. Better still than even this was to 
be the presence of the Holy Ghost, who would 
follow him as he had followed John. 

“ I tell you the truth,” he said, when about to 
utter what was hard to believe : “ I tell you the 
truth: It is expedient for you that I go away.” 
How could it be expedient? Would they not 
be losers to an extent which no man could reckon ? 


THE PROMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 15 

'The light of his countenance, the blessing of 
his words, the purity of his presence, the influence 
of his example, all to be removed; and this expe¬ 
dient for them ! “ It is expedient for you that I 

go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter 
will not come unto you.” Well, but would they 
not be better with himself than with the Com¬ 
forter? No: just the contrary. They would be 
better with the Comforter: He would lead them 
into all truth; whereas now they are constantly 
misapplying the plain words of Christ. He 
would bring all things to their remembrance; 
whereas now they often forget in a day or two 
the most remarkable teaching, or the most amaz¬ 
ing miracles. He would take the things of 
Christ, the things of the Father, and reveal them 
unto them; whereas now they constantly misap¬ 
prehended his relation to the Father, and that of 
the Father to him; misapprehended his person, 
his mission, and his kingdom. Again, He would 
convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and 
of judgment to come; and this is not as one 
teacher limited by a local personality, but as a 
Spirit diffused abroad throughout the earth. 
And he would abide with them for ever , not for 
“a little while.” Whatever, therefore, Christ's 
personal presence and teaching had been to them, 
the presence of the Spirit would be more. 


16 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


Having thus strongly preoccupied their minds 
with the hope of a greater joy than even his own 
countenance, the Master laid down his life. Stun¬ 
ned, dispersed, and desolate, they felt themselves 
orphans indeed. Their Master ignominiously ex¬ 
ecuted, and neither the word of John nor his own 
word fulfilled: no Comforter, no baptism, no fire! 
Soon he reappeared, and, as they were met to¬ 
gether for the first time since his death, once more 
stood in the midst of them. He breathed upon 
them, and said, u Receive ye the Holy Ghost/' 
With that word, doubtless, both peace and power 
were given; yet it was not the baptism of fire. 
During forty days he conversed with them on the 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God; assign¬ 
ing to them the work of proclaiming and estab¬ 
lishing that kingdom to the ends of the earth. 
One injunction, however, he laid upon them, which 
seemed to defer the effect of others. They were 
to go into all the world, yet not at once, or uncon¬ 
ditionally. “ Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem 
till ye be endued with power from on high.” Ap¬ 
parently more ready to interpret u power” as re¬ 
ferring to the hopes of their nation than to the 
kingdom of grace, they asked, “Lord, wilt thou 
at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” 
(Acts i. 6.) 

He had said noth'ng of a kingdom for Israel, or 


THE PROMISE OP A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 17 

in Israel. His speech had been on a higher theme, 
and of a wider field: namely, “ that repentance and 
remission of sins should he preached in his name 
among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And 
ye are witnesses of these things.” Such, in va¬ 
rious forms, are the words we find him uttering 
concerning his kingdom during these forty days. 
When, therefore, they asked if he would at this 
time restore again the kingdom to Israel, he shortly 
turned aside their curiosity. What the Father’s 
designs were as to Israel nationally; what the times 
when-they might again be a kingdom, were points 
not for them. They had better work, and nearer 
at hand. “It is not for you to know the times or 
the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own 
power.” (Acts i. 7.) “Hut,” he continued, pass¬ 
ing at once from curious questions about the fu¬ 
ture of Israel, and unfulfilled prophecy, to his own 
grand kingdom, “But ye shall receive power, after 
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” What 
power? of princes or magistrates? Nay, quite an¬ 
other power, for an unearthly work: “And ye shall 
be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in 
all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
part of the earth.” 

In these words he traces the circles in which 
Christian sympathy and activity should ever run: 

2 * 


18 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


first, Jerusalem, their chief city; next, J udea, their 
native land; then Samaria, a neighboring country, 
inhabited by a race nationally detested by their 
countrymen; and finally “the uttermost part of 
the earth.” They were neither to seek distant 
spheres first, nor to confine themselves always at 
home; but to carry the gospel into all the world, 
as each country could be reached. This was what 
he had before placed in their view—the filling all 
the earth with the news of grace, news that repent¬ 
ance and pardon were opened to men by the power 
of his atonement. We have no hint that he ever 
spake, during the forty days , of other kingdom , 
royalty , or reign. Not to rule over cities; not to 
speculate on the designs of the Father and the 
destinies of the Jew; but to go into the whole 
world, tell every creature the story of Christ, was 
to be their princely work. To found a kingdom 
not over men’s persons, but “within” their souls; 
a kingdom not of provinces, but of “righteousness, 
and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;” a king¬ 
dom to be spread not by the arms of a second 
Joshua, but by the “witness” of the human 
voice; a kingdom, the power-of which would not 
lie in force or policy, or signs observed in heaven, 
but in a spiritual power imparted by the Holy 
Ghost, and operating in superhuman utterance of 
heavenly truth—this was their embassy. For this 


THE PROMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 19 


were they to he endued with power from on high. 
But when was this power, so long spoken of, to 
come? Would John’s word ever be fulfilled? 
The Master has not forgotten it. “ John truly 
baptized with water, hut ye shall he baptized with 
the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” At length 
the promise is brought to a point, and its fulfil¬ 
ment near. 

Already had he proclaimed himself King, and 
marked out the ministers and army, the weapon, 
the extent, the badge of citizenship, the statute 
law, the royal glory, and the duration of his king¬ 
dom. With his disciples around him, standing 
on a mountain-top, heaven above and earth below, 
he thus proclaimed his kingdom: “All power is 
given to me in heaven and in earth:” here was 
the King. “ Go:” here were the ministers and 
army—an embassy of peace. “Teach:” here the 
weapon—the word of God. “All nations:” here 
the extent. “Baptizing,them in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:” 
here the badge of citizenship. “Teaching them 
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you:” here the statute law. “And, lo, I am with 
you:” here the royal presence and glory of the 
kingdom. “Alway, unto the end of the world :” 
here its duration. (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20.) Now 
again he is rising a hill, conversing with those who 


20 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


liad heard this proclamation, as to their part in 
the establishment of the kingdom. He has clearly 
promised that, before many days, the long-looked- 
for baptism of fire will come. That implies, that 
before many days he will depart; for he ever said 
that he must first ascend. He has answered, or 
rather rebuked, their curious inquiry as to Israel; 
has turned their thoughts again to the descent of 
the Spirit; and is just telling them that, endued 
with this new power, they shall bear witness to 
his glory not only at home but abroad. “To the 
uttermost part of the earth,” is the last word on 
his lips (Acts i. 8)—a startling word for his pea¬ 
sant auditors, accustomed to limit their range of 
thought within the Holy Land. But he had al¬ 
ready said that all power was given to him “in 
heaven and in earth.” Did not the faith of some 
disciple reel under the weight of these words ? 

“In Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Sama¬ 
ria, and to the uttermost part of the earth Y* 
This word is on his lips: they are steadily watch¬ 
ing him: he lifts his hands, he pronounces his 
blessing; and in the act, (Luke xxiv. 50,) lo, his 
body, which they know “has flesh and bones” 
like their own, begins to rise! No wing, no hand, 
no chariot of fire! Upward it moves by its own 
power; and in that single action commands the 
homage of earth; for our globe has no law so uni- 


THE PROMISE OF A BAPTISM OF FIRE. 2l 

versal and irreversible as that whereby it binds 
down all ponderous bodies to its surface. Here 
this law gives way, and thereby the whole mass 
of the globe yields to the power of Christ. This 
placid movement of* that body, up from the sur¬ 
face of earth into the heights of the sky, is an 
open act of sovereignty over the highest physical 
law; whereby Christ “manifested forth his glory/’ 
as Lord and Maker of all physical laws. His 
proclamation of kingship is thus acknowledged 
by earth with its highest homage. Now the hea¬ 
ven adds its homage, stoops in luminous cloud, 
and robes him for his enthronement. The ever¬ 
lasting doors lift up their heads. The King of 
Grlory enters in! The First-begotten from the 
dead, the Prince of the kings of the earth, sits 
down with the Father on his throne; and from 
him receives the word, “Thy throne, 0 God, is 
for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is 
the sceptre of thy kingdom!” And again, “Let 
all the angels of God worship him.” Within the 
veil they worship the Lamb; and down they speed 
to his followers, and tell them that they need not 
gaze. As they have seen him go, so shall they 
see him come, even in the clouds, to judge that 
world, of which and of its princes he is King. 
Thus triply is his kingship owned. Earth per- 


22 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


mits him to rise, heaven hows, the angels add their 
testimony. All things own him. Unbelief is now 
impossible. Doubt vanishes away. His word 
shall not pass unfulfilled. The baptism of fire is 
at hand. 


THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT 28 


CHAPTER II. 

THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT. 

It is on Thursday, probably in the evening, 
that the disciples return to Jerusalem. Their 
Master is no more at their head—indeed, no 
more on earth; and as yet his great promise is 
unfulfilled. But the scene of the ascension is in 
their eye: the voice of angels in their ear. Je¬ 
sus is King of kings and Lord of lords. The 
Comforter is coming “not many days hence.” 
Not with doubting or weeping do they enter the 
city, but with “great joy;” the joy of a triumph 
already sealed, and of hope foreseeing triumphs 
to come. Most probably that joy carries their 
first steps to the temple. (Luke xxiv. 53.) Oft 
had they entered it with him, but never so tri¬ 
umphantly as now. There they are, not mourn¬ 
ing the absence of their Master, but “praising 
and blessing G-od.” Thence they go to “ an up¬ 
per room.” We know not in what street, or on 


24 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


what site; hut there “ abode” a few men whose 
names were not then great, but whose names will 
never more pass from the memory of mankind. 
With them abode also a few women, who had 
loved their Lord; and for the last time “ Mary 
the mother of Jesus” is named as one of the little 
company. Men and women, they now began to 
pray, and they “ continued with one accord iff 
prayer and supplication” for the baptism of fire. 

Did they expect to receive it that very night ? 
This we know not; but we do know that then 
opened a new era in the intercourse of man with 
heaven. As they began to pray, how would they 
find all their conceptions of the Majesty on high 
changed! It no longer spread before and be¬ 
yond the soul’s eyesight, as an unvaried infinity 
of glory incomprehensible. The glory was brighter, 
the incomprehensibility remained; but the in¬ 
finity had now received a centre. Every beam 
of the glory converged toward the person of 
“God manifest in the flesh,” now “received 
up into heaven:” the glory not dissolving the 
person in its own tide, the person not dimming 
the glory by any shade, though appearing through 
it as the sun’s body through the light. Perhaps, 
indeed, the change was such, to their view, as 
would have struck the eye of an observer of na¬ 
ture, had one lived on our planet at the time 


THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT. 25 

when the sun was first set in the firmament. 
The light which before had been a wide and level 
mystery, now had to his eye a law, a centre, and 
a spring. The indistinct view of a material form 
amid the seemingly spiritual glory, gave the feel¬ 
ing that some body akin to our own globe lay at 
the centre of illumination. This body was not 
the cause of the light, not even of the same na¬ 
ture, but around the body the u exceeding weight 
of glory” seemed to hang. 

0, to feel as felt that heart which first dis¬ 
cerned human nature in the person of Him who 
had been u so marred/’ set down 11 on the right 
hand of the Majesty on high !” The glory of 
the Father encompassing a human form, and 
beaming from a human brow ! u If ye loved me, 
ye would rejoice, because I' said, I go unto the 
Father; for my Father is greater than I,” was 
the word of Jesus. Now that they had seen him 
pass within the veil—seen the ushering angels 
attend his entrance, and heard the music of their 
voices—they would not feel as if he had forsaken 
them, but as they had often felt when the high- 
priest passed from their view into the holiest, 
bearing the blood of atonement, to stand before 
the Presence—“ he is out of sight, but there be¬ 
fore the Lord.” The first thought would be one 
3 


26 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


of joy for him. Peter! how did thy breast 
heave when first thou didst behold, by faith clear 
as sight, that countenance which had looked 
round upon thee from the bar, now looking down 
upon thee from the high and lofty throne ! Mary 
Magdalene, who wast bent under the sevenfold 
power of the Devil when first that face beamed 
on thee; who didst fall at his feet when, just 
arisen from the dead, he first appeared to thee 1 
what was the flow of thy tears, what the odor of 
thy joy, when the full truth burst on thy view, 
that he had “ overcome, and was set down with 
the Father on his throne !” And thou, John! 
what felt thy bosom when he on whose bosom 
thine own head had leaned, appeared to thy mind 
no more with such as thee, but, as “in the begin¬ 
ning, with God?” And thou, too, Mary the 
blessed, through whose soul the sword had gone! 
how did thy “ soul magnify the Lord !” how did 
thy “spirit rejoice in God thy Saviour,” when 
thy meek eye saw the infinite accomplishment 
of Gabriel’s word, He shall be great! 

Mingling with this first joy for the Master’s 
exaltation, and presently rising to the surface 
and overspreading all their emotions, would be 
the feeling, “ He has entered for us within the 
veil! He bears our names upon his heart for a 
memorial before the Lord! He maketh inter- 


THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT. 27 

cession for us !” Tush ! which of the twelve is 
it that starts up as if a spirit had entered him, 
and, pointing upward, says to the brethren, “Let 
us ask the Father in his name ! He said to us, 
1 Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name , 
he will give it to you. Hitherto ye have asked 
nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, 
that your joy may be full/ ” (John xvi. 23, 24.) 

The angels had often sung together when the 
prayer of repenting sinners was heard on high. 
Now, for the first time, they hear prayers from 
human lips rising to the throne authorized and 
accredited by the name of the Only-begotten of 
the Father. That name has just been set “above 
overy name ;” and as it echoes through the host 
above, with the solemn joy of a hundred believ¬ 
ing voices, “things in heaven” bow. Be man 
ever so unworthy, “worthy is the Lamb;” and 
his name covers with justice every request to 
which it is set by his authority. What must 
have been that moment for the saints in Para¬ 
dise, who had seen the Saviour afar off, but never 
known the joy of praying directly in his name! 
Father Abraham had “rejoiced to see his day; 
and he saw it and was glad.” What would be 
his gladness now, that earth and heaven were re¬ 
joicing in his name! David, to whom he was at 
once Lord and Son, what would be “ the things” 


28 


THE TONGUE OE FIRE. 


which in that wonderful moment his tongue 
would speak u touching the King?” 

From the hour that sin entered into the world, 
the Just One had never given man audience on 
terms fit only for the innocent. An upright in¬ 
ferior may approach Majesty, not without rever¬ 
ence, hut without shame or atonement. The ad¬ 
mission of a criminal on the same footing would 
be wrong. Right in our governments is the im¬ 
perfect reflection of a perfect right. Had the 
favor of the Almighty crossed the line which 
divides innocence from guilt, and smiled upon the 
latter, that smile would have been a scathing 
flash, wherein all morals would have blackened. 
Sinful man had not been hopelessly banished 
from the presence of God; but he had ever been 
taught to come displaying a sign of wrath, of 
death, which is the wages of sin; thus declaring 
to the universe that he appealed not to a justice 
which had never been offended, but to a justice 
which had been satisfied. 

The altar had been the patriarch’s place of 
prayer. The temple, where was the perpetual 
offering, had been the centre to which every pray¬ 
ing Israelite turned. To approach the Eternal 
Godhead as if no evil had been done, and no 
stroke merited, was never yet the privilege of a 
creature who had done wrong. It was wonder- 


THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT. 29 


ful, yea, mysterious, that such could be allowed 
to approach at all; but the Lord would ever jus¬ 
tify his permission by demanding clear and ex¬ 
press reference to that propitiation which he has 
set forth to declare his own righteousness, in that 
marvellous act of lifting the guilty into the man¬ 
sions of the good. 

How great the transition from these symbols 
of the atonement to the full view of its reality! 
During the forty days, Jesus had opened their 
understanding, poiuted out to them the scrip¬ 
tures which bore upon his death, and showed its 
connection with remission of sins for mankind. 
They now looked no more to temple or to altar. 
They had before them the true sacrifice completed. 
He had “ purged their sins,” and, in the same 
body wherein he had done so, was standing be¬ 
fore the Father. 

He had given them authority to use his name. 
With that name their petitions carried the assent 
of all the rational and moral creation. The 
Eternal Father, in holding communion with 
beings who had done wrong, exposed no sinless 
being to doubts as to whether right and wrong 
were equal. He had “made peace through” 
Christ’s “ blood :” had thus “ reconciled all things 
to himself”—to himself in the new and myate 
3* 


30 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


rious proceeding of government, whereby the 
doers of wrong were spared the effects of wrong¬ 
doing. “ For it pleased the Father that in him 
should all fulness dwell; and, having made 
peace through the blood of his cross, by him to 
reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, 
whether they be things in earth, or things in 
heaven.” (Col. i. 19, 20.) So that creatures 
“in heaven,” all whose joy depended on their 
never doing wrong, had no murmur to raise, and 
no temptation to undergo, when they saw creatures 
“ on earth,” who had followed ways which would 
make any world sorrowful, received into the arms 
of eternal mercy. The guilty he reconciled by 
forgiving their sin and recovering their hearts; 
and the innocent he reconciled to see offenders 
exalted, by “setting forth” so conspicuously that 
all angels desired to look into it, “a propitiation,” 
which fully “ declared his righteousness,” his 
strict care of right; which magnified law, magni¬ 
fied holiness, magnified obedience, and, in the 
act of saving the guilty, magnified beyond all 
previous conception the heinousness of guilt. 
What sense of the distinction between right and 
wrong could have been maintained among inno¬ 
cent creatures, had they seen transgressors raised 
to favor and honor without atonement ? 

0 the joy of that first hour of praying in the 


THE WAITING FOE THE FULFILMENT. 31 

name of Christ! Was not Martha there ? As 
she met the Master on that mournful day, when 
Lazarus lay in the tomb, though despairing, she 
said, u But I know that even now, whatsoever 
thou wilt ask of God, God wilt give it thee.” 
If such was her confidence then, what would be 
her confidence now—he asking for her, and she 
asking in his name ! How the souls of the dis¬ 
ciples, following him above the sky, would soar, 
with a new wing, a new eye, and a new song! 
What simple and glowing collects would they be 
which were uttered then! What words of joy 
and supplication would he pour forth who first 
bethought him of putting the Lord in remem¬ 
brance of his own promises! What short and 
burning petitions would go up from the lips 
which first quoted, u Whatsoever ye shall ask the 
Father in my name, he shall give it you!” 
How would he plead who first remembered, “Ask 
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you!” 
How would tones of desire and triumph mingle 
in the first repetition of, “All things whatsoever 
ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive!” 
None of their prayers are recorded. We have 
ancient collects, and beautiful they are; but 
none of these most ancient are preserved. The 
Spirit has not seen it good to hand down the 
strong and tender collects of these ten, or of the 


32 


THE TONGUE OE EIRE. 


following days. Then surely it is unlawful to 
impose good forms of prayer upon all men because 
ancient saints wrote them. 

He who will never use a form in public 
prayer, casts away the wisdom of the past. He 
who will use only forms, casts away the hope 
of utterance to be given by the Spirit at present, 
and even shuts up the future in the stiff hand 
of the past. Whatever Church forbids a Chris¬ 
tian congregation, no matter what may be their 
fears, troubles, joys, or special and pressing need, 
ever to send up prayer to God, except in words 
framed by other men in other ages, uses an au¬ 
thority which was never delegated. To object to 
all forms is narrowness. To doom a Christian 
temple to be a place wherein a simple and im¬ 
promptu cry may never arise to heaven, is super¬ 
stition. 

Does any one of the hundred and twenty, even 
in paradise, up to this moment forget the hour of 
prayer that Thursday night, after they had re¬ 
turned from Olivet? 

The Friday morning dawns. It was on Friday 
the Lord had died. Would he not send his pro¬ 
mised substitute to-day? 0! how his cross would 
all day long stand before the eye of every disciple! 
Now came back all his words about the death 


THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT. 33 

“which he should accomplish;” from the night 
when he told Nicodemus that, as the serpent had 
been lifted up, so must he be, up to the night in 
which he said, “ The hour is come”—words dark at 
the time, but pointed to-day as the steel of arrows. 
What had been mystery, was mystery no longer. 
Now the only mystery was, “What manner of 
love!” Was it on that day that John’s fiery 
heart—the heart which had rebuked the man who 
followed not them, which wished to burn the in¬ 
hospitable villagers, and to be, with his brother, 
head of all—was it then this heart fully embraced 
the meaning of the agony witnessed by him so 
close at hand, as compared with the others, and 
written upon it for ever? Was it then it first 
saw all the import of the words, “God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not per¬ 
ish, but have everlasting life?” and that the “son 
of thunder” was transformed into the child of 
charity ? 

Never before had the thought of man alternated 
between two such scenes as those which divided 
the eye of every soul in that praying company: a 
cross, a drooping head, hands bleeding, feet bleed¬ 
ing, heaven black, thieves on either side, gibes 
below; and a preternatural sorrow on the soul of 
the sufferer, which cast over the whole an infinite 


34 


THE TONGUE OE EIRE. 


dreadfulness. On this the eye looks one moment; 
and weeps. Then a throne, high and lifted up: 
the glory of the Lord: angels bowing: angels 
singing: saints with palm, and harp, and voice 
acclaiming; and in the centre of all might, ma¬ 
jesty, and dominion, the crucified body, living, 
but with its wounds, “as slain.” On this the 
same eye looks, and weeps again. 0 for the feel¬ 
ings of that day! 

Yet the Friday wears away, and no “baptism 
of fire!” The Saturday sets in: its hours are filled 
up as before with prayer; but no answer. And 
now dawns the first day of the week, the day 
whereon he rose, the first Lord’s day he had passed 
on his throne of glory. How did they spend that 
day? Surely they would fully expect that the 
blessing they sought would be delayed no longer. 
He said, “Not many days:” this was the fourth 
day: it must come to-day ! But the evening steals 
on, and all their prayers might have risen into a 
heaven that could not hear. Monday, Tuesday, 
Wednesday pass. Their faith does not fail: still 
in the temple “praising and blessing Grod,” or in 
the upper room in “ prayer and supplication,” they 
continue of one accord. Though he tarry, yet will 
they wait for him. 

This is waiting. Some speak of waiting for sal 
vation as if it meant making ourselves at ease, and 


THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT. 35 

dismissing both effort and anxiety. Who so waits 
for any person or any event ? When waiting, your 
mind is set on a certain point: you can give your¬ 
self to notaing else. You are looking forward, 
and preparing: every moment of delay increases 
the sensitiveness of your mind as to that one thing. 
A servant waiting for his master, a wife waiting 
for the footstep of her husband, a mother waiting 
for her expected boy, a merchant waiting for his 
richly laden ship, a sailor waiting for the sight of 
laud, a monarch waiting for tidings of the battle 
—all these are cases wherein the mind is set on 
one object, and cannot easily give attention to an¬ 
other. 

“ To-morrow will be Thursday, a full week from 
the ascension: that will be the day: the term of 
the promise will not extend farther. To-morrow 
the Comforter will come: to-morrow we shall be 
baptized with fire, and fitted to do the works our 
Master did, ‘yea, greater works than these/ ” 
So they would probably settle it in their mind. 
The Thursday finds them, as before, “of one ac¬ 
cord in one place;” no Thomas absent through 
unbelief. How the scene of that day week would 
return to their view! How they would over and 
over again in mind repeat the walk from Jerusa¬ 
lem to Olivet; each recalling what he said to the 
Master, and what the Master said to him; each 


36 


THE TONGUE OE FIRE. 


thinking he had got such a look as he never got 
before, and as he should not forget so long as he 
lived! How they would repeat the last words! 
“Ye shall receive 'power , after that the Holy 
Ghost is come upon you.” In the repetition new 
faith would kindle. “Yes, we shall: let us wait 
on: we shall ‘be endued with power from on 
high/ ” Then another would repeat, “And ye 
shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all 
Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost part 
of the earth.” This was vast language for them, 
whose thoughts were wont to move only in the 
sphere of Palestine. Probably they did not so 
much weigh the import of the terms as look at 
the main promise. They should be endued with 
the power of the Holy Ghost—that power which 
had made psalmists and prophets; had rendered 
the words of Elijah stronger than the decrees of 
Ahab, the words of Elisha stronger than the ar¬ 
mies of Syria, the words of Isaiah as coals from 
the altar, and the words of Daniel mightier than 
the spirit of a king and “a thousand of his cap¬ 
tains.” Baptized with the same Spirit, they were 
to proclaim what these foretold, but never saw: 
the Child born, the Son given; the Prince cut off 
for sin, but not his own; the Lamb on whom were 
laid the iniquities of all. All this they had seen 
fulfilled in the person of their glorious Lord. All 


THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT. 37 

this they had heard explained by his own lips be¬ 
fore and after his death. They were to go and 
prove to others, as he had proved to them, that 
“thus it was written, and thus it behooved Christ 
to suffer, and to rise again the third day; and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be preached 
in his name among all nations, beginning at Je¬ 
rusalem.” 

Here again they encountered the intimation 
that their message was for all, and their testimony 
to be borne to the uttermost parts of the earth. 
Yet still it seems that not the sphere, but the 
purport, of their commission now occupied their 
mind. They were to go, and as he had preached, 
so would they, far and wide, in cities and villages. 
In what tones would they tell the people that as 
he used to say to those who came to him, “Be of 
good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee,” so would 
he now say from heaven to all who lifted an eye 
to him! 

But the day wears on, and no blessing. Is not 
the delay long? “Not many days!” Does the 
promise hold good? They must have felt disap¬ 
pointed as the evening fell, and no sign of an an¬ 
swer to their oft-repeated prayer. Now is the 
hour of trial. Will their faith fail? Will some 
begin to forsake the meetings which bring not the 
4 


38 


XJIE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


baptism they seek? Will some stay at home, or 
“go a-fishing,” saying that they will wait the 
Lord’s time, and not be unwarrantably anxious 
about what, after all, does not depend on them, 
but on the Lord? Will no one say, “We have 
done our duty, and must leave results—we can¬ 
not command the fulfilment of the promise—we 
have asked for it, asked sincerely, fervently, re¬ 
peatedly: we can do no more?” 

Or, what is equally probable, will they begin to 
find out that the cause why they remain unblessed, 
and yet “orphans,” lies in the unfaithfulness of 
their companions? Happily, the spirit of faith 
and love abides upon them. John does not turn 
upon Peter, and say, “It is your fault; for you 
denied the Master.” Philip does not turn to John 
and say, “It is your fault; for you and James 
wanted to lord it over us all.” Andrew does not 
turn to Thomas, and say, “It is your fault; for 
you would not believe, even when we had declared 
it to you.” The Seventy do not say, “It is the 
fault of the Twelve; for, after the Lord had lifted 
them above us all, one of them sold him, another 
denied him, and a third disbelieved him.” The 
Marys do not say, “It is the fault of the whole 
company, a cold and unfaithful company, profess¬ 
ing to love the Master to his face; but the moment 


THE WAITING FOR TIIE FULFILMENT. 39 

he fell into the hands of his enemies, ye all for¬ 
sook him, and fled!” 

Well did they know that they had been slow of 
heart: been unworthy of such a Teacher: often a 
grieved him, and made him ask, “ How long shjgfL- 
I be with you?” John would never forget th& 
rebuke, “ Ye know not what manner of spirit ye 
are of.” Peter would never forget, the third time, 

“ Lovest thou me ?” Philip would never forget, 

“ Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast 
thou not known me, Philip ?” And surely 
Thomas would never forget, “Be not faithless, 
but believing.” 

Yet they knew he had not come to call the 
righteous, but sinners to repentance. His own lips 
had said, “ He that is whole hath no need of a 
physician, but he that is sick.” Had he not 
taken to his bosom the very head whose heats Of 
ambition and of vindictiveness he had rebuked ?, 
Had he not said to Peter, “ Feed my lambs ?” 
Had he not said to Thomas, “ Beach hither thy 
hand ?” His promise was not made because they 
were a Church without spot or wrinkle; but be¬ 
cause they were feeble, and, deprived of his own 
presence, would be orphans indeed, did no other 
power cover them. He knew every fault with 
which either of them could charge the others; 
yet the promise had passed his lips, and the fire 


40 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


would fall even on them, unworthy as they were. 
Happy for them, that none fancied he could fix 
upon others the cause of their unanswered 
prayers! 

The Thursday is gone : eight days ! The Fri¬ 
day and the Saturday follow it, marked by the 
same persistency in union, in praise, in prayer, 
and by the same absence of encouragement. Ten 
days gone! the promise, “ Not many days,” is 
all but broken. 

Peter was always warm and earnest. A thought 
of his had hardly time to become a thought be¬ 
fore it turned into either word or action. When 
once his mind had embraced the glorious idea of 
standing up before the world a witness for his 
ascended Master, it would seem as if the whole plan 
was to be carried out in a day. One cannot help 
imagining how he bore the restraint of the ten 
days —the days of prayer, of belief, of waiting— 
in which they were not permitted to begin their 
work. 

u Strange !” we almost hear him say, “ Strange! 
The Lord has died that repentance and remission 
of sins should be preached in his name among 
all nations. He has finished the work, risen from 
the dead, and led captivity captive. The heavens 
have received him. The angels proclaim him. 
Us he took from our homes: how he taught, and 


THE WAITING FOR THE FULFILMENT. 41 

trained, and practiced us : all, as we now see, for 
this work of proclaiming his love and the pardon 
it brings to all mankind ! Here we are, unfitted 
for every other calling. His commission is to us 
as a prophet’s call, as a king’s anointing. He 
said, i Go into all the world, and preach the gospel 
to every creature.’ We want to go. Men stand 
in need: they are dying daily; dying in unbelief. 
Why does he not permit us to go ? Why is the 
first command so long suspended by the other— 
* Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be 
endued with power from on high?’ We have 
tarried ten days. Why does our Master delay ? 
The world needs the sound of his gospel: we are 
waiting to bear it forth. He is exalted at God’s 
right hand, and all power is given unto him in 
heaven and in earth; yet does he look down upon 
the world sleeping a sleep unto death, and upon 
us waiting to blow the trumpet! Is not his 
instruction, his commission, enough? We are 
ordained, after much teaching: may we not go ? 
No : we must abide by his word : ‘ Tarry until ye 
be endued with power from on high.’ ” 

The final proof given by Peter that he was 
waiting indeed, making all preparations for the 
event, was in calling upon his brethren to fill up 
the number of the apostles. One had fallen 
4* 


42 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


His place was vacant; and another was to take 
his “ bishopric.” Peter concluded that they were 
to fill up this vacancy, and called upon tl e com¬ 
pany to select two men. No one objected that it 
remained to be seen whether they should be en¬ 
dued with power or not. All acted as feeling the 
certainty that the Holy Spirit was about to come, 
and the apostolic commission to be fulfilled to the 
ends of the earth. 


TEE FULFILMENT OF THE PROMISE. 43 


CHAPTER III. 

THE FULFILMENT OF THE PROMISE. 

There was a day when death had struck a 
woeful stroke, and raised a nation’s wail. “ There 
was a great cry in the land of Egypt; for there 
was not a house where there was not one dead.” 
That same day the Lord, by the sprinkling of a 
pure lamb’s blood, averted death from the doors 
of Israel, and then led them away from yoke and 
taskmaster toward the goodly land. Fifty days 
afterward they reached the Mount of God, where 
he manifested himself in the thunder of his 
power, with flame and trumpet, and a voice, 
whereat all the tribes did tremble. Then was the 
new dispensation formally inaugurated with the 
voice and the flame : its covenant sealed by sprink¬ 
ling of blood, and its privileges opened to the 
sprinkled by the vision of glory, when the elders 
“saw the God of Israel; and there was under his 
feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, 
and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness.” 
Exod. xxiv. 10. 


44 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


This time of note was come : the fifty days were 
elapsed from the time when the Lamb was slain, 
and captivity broken. Forty days he had been 
with them after his resurrection : the rest he had 
passed within the veil. And was it not possible 
that in saying, “Not many days,” he pointed them 
forward to the day which commemorated the 
opening of the new dispensation of God to Israel 
by the hand of his servant Moses? Was it not 
probable that the glorious dispensation of his Son 
would be opened at this time? Unbelief would 
have long ago ceased to expect; but faith would 
probably renew its anticipations, and look to this 
day.* 

On the morning of the resurrection, some—the 
women—were early at the tomb; but the others 
were sauntering into the country, or here and 
there, with nothing to wait for, as they thought; 
yet partly expecting something to come to their 
ears. Even late in the day, when they did meet 
to hear what some had seen and heard, Thomas 
was away. Now, however, after ten days have 
elapsed, their patience is not exhausted. They 
do expect, and therefore will not cease to wait. 
They have no attention for any thing else. The 

* Among the many writers on the temporal relation 
between the Pentecost and the Passover, no one is more 
familiar or clearer than Kuinoel. 



TIIE FULFILMENT OF THE PROMISE. 45 

kingdom of God is at hand. Did he not say, 
“ Not many days?” Ten are gone; and the con¬ 
clusion is, not that of servants too idle to wait: 
“ Our Lord delayeth his coming: we may as well 
sit still. He will come in his own good time.” 
That is not waiting: it is idling. They said, in 
their believing hearts, “ Ten days are gone: 
therefore the day of our Lord draweth nigh. This 
is the day of Pentecost; and as the fire appeared 
on Sinai, in the presence of our fathers, when God 
made his covenant by Moses, it may be that to-day 
he will seal his covenant by the hand of the 
Prophet whom Moses foresaw, baptizing us with 
fire, according to the word wherein he hath made 
his servants to hope.” 

No Thomas is absent now! Not one heart has 
failed ! “ They are all in one place.” No dis¬ 

cord or doubt have they permitted to arise : “they 
are all with one accord in one place.” Nor are 
they slow or late. We are not told at what hour 
they met, but it must have been very early; for 
after they had received the baptism, and filled all 
Jerusalem with the noise of their new powers, 
Peter reminded the multitude, who came together, 
that it was only the third hour of the day—nine 
o’clock in the morning. 

Early, then, on the second Lord’s day after the 
Ascension, is the entire company met, with one 


46 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


heart, to renew their oft-repeated prayer. We 
cannot go to the house where was that upper 
room; nor to the site where it stood. These 
points are left unnoticed, after the mode of Chris¬ 
tianity, which is in nothing a religion of circum¬ 
stances, in every thing a religion of principled. Wo 
know not how long they had that morning urged 
their prayer, nor whose voice was then crying to 
Him who had promised, nor what word of the 
Master he was pleading, nor what feelings of closer 
expectation and more vivid faith were warming 
the breasts of the disciples. But u suddenly 
there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing 
mighty wind.” Not, mark you, a wind : no gale 
sweeping over the city struck the sides of the 
house, and rustled round it. But “from heaven” 
directly downward fell “ a sound,” without shape, 
or step, or movement to account for it—a sound 
as if a mighty wind were rushing, not along the 
ground, but straight from on high, like showers in 
a dead calm. Yet no wind stirred. As fco mo¬ 
tion, the air of the room was still as death : as to 
sound, it was awful as a hurricane’. 

Mysterious sound, whence comest thou ? Is it 
the Lord again breathing upon them, but this 
time from his throne ? Is it the wind of Ezekiel 
preparing to blow ? Shaken by this supernatural 
sign, we may see each head bow low. Then, 


THE FULFILMENT OF THE PROMISE. 47 

timidly turning upward, John sees Peter’s head 
crowned with fire: Peter sees James crowned 
with fire: James sees Nathanael crowned with 
fire: Nathanael sees Mary crowned with fire; and 
round and round the fire sits “on each of them.” 
The Lord has been mindful of his promise. The 
word of the Lord is tried. John was a faith¬ 
ful witness. Jesus was a faithful Itedeemer. 
He is now glorified; for the Holy Ghost is given. 
Jesus “being by the right hand of God exalted, 
and having received of the Father the promise 
of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this.” 

The instant effect of the descent of the Spirit 
on the first Gentile converts in the house of Cor¬ 
nelius was, that they began to “magnify God.”* 
The effect would be the same in this first case. 
That bosom has yet to learn what is the feeling 
of moral sublimity, which never has been sud¬ 
denly heaved with an emotion of uncontrollable 
adoration to God and the Lamb—an emotion 
which, though no voice told whence it came, by 
its movement in the depths of the soul, farther 
down than ordinary feelings reach, did indicate 
somehow that the touch of the Creator was trace¬ 
able in it. They only who have felt such un¬ 
earthly joy need attempt to conceive the outburst 
of that burning moment. Body, soul, and spirit, 


* See Baumgarten. 



48 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


glowing with one celestial fire, would blend, and 
pour out their powers in a rapturous “ Glory be 
to God !” or “ Blessed be the Lord God !” Mod¬ 
ern believers—not those who never unite in sim¬ 
ple and fervent supplications at the throne of 
grace, but those who meet and urge with long- 
repeated entreaty their requests to God—can re¬ 
call times which help them to imagine what must 
have been the peal of praise that burst from the 
hearts of the hundred and twenty, when the bap¬ 
tism fell upon their souls: times when they and 
their friends have felt as if the place where they 
met was filled with the glory of the Lord. 

One word as to the mode of this baptism. In 
this case we have the one perfectly clear account 
contained in Scripture of the mode wherein the 
baptizing element was applied to the jperson of 
the baptized. The element here is fire: the 
models shedding down—“hath shed forth this.” 
“ It sat upon each of them.” Did baptism mean 
immersion, they would have been plunged into 
the fire, not the fire shed upon them. The only 
other case in which the mode of contact between 
the baptizing element and the baptized persons 
is indicated, is this: “And were all baptized to 
Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” They were 
not dipped in the cloud, but the cloud descended 


THE FULFILMENT OF THE PROMISE. 49 

upon them: they were not plunged into the sea, 
but the sea sprinkled them as they passed. The 
Spirit signified by the water is never once pro¬ 
mised under the idea of dipping. Such an ex¬ 
pression as, “I will immerse you in my Spirit,” 
“ I will plunge you in my Spirit,” or, “ I will dip 
you in clean water,” is unknown to the Scripture. 
But, “ I will pour out my Spirit upon you,” “ I 
will sprinkle clean water upon you,” is language 
and thought familiar to all readers of the Bible. 
The word “dip,” or “dipped,” does not often 
occur in the New Testament; but when it does, 
the original is never “ baptize,” or “ baptized.”* 

The fire is not a shapeless flame. It is not 
Abram’s lamp, nor the pillar of the desert, nor 
the coal of Isaiah, nor the enfolding flame of 
Ezekiel. It is a tongue; yea, cloven tongues. 
On each brow glows a sheet of flame, parted into 
many tongues. Here was the symbol of the new 
dispensation. Christianity was to be a Tongue 
of Eire. It was a symbol of their “ power :” the 
power whereby the new kingdom was to be built 
up; the power for which they had so long to 
tarry, and so eagerly to pray, when all other 
things were prepared; for which the whole ar- 


* It is always Butttu, never Bcnvriiv. 

5 



50 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


rangement for the world’s conversion was com¬ 
manded to stand still. The appearance of this 
one symbol was the signal that former ones had 
waxed old, and were ready to vanish away. 
Altar and cherubim, sacrifice and incense, ephod 
and breastplate, Urim and Thummim — their 
work was done. Even of the most sacred em¬ 
blem of all, that which was the “ pattern of 
things in the heavens,” .the ark itself, it had 
been foretold, “They shall say no more, The 
ark of the covenant of the Lord; neither shall 
it come to mind ; neither shall they remember it ; 
neither shall they visit it; neither shall it be 
magnified any more.” Of the temple itself the 
Master had said that not one stone should be left 
upon another. 

All the emblems of the old dispensation were 
now for ever superseded. In their room the 
Lord had appointed only two; and they chosen 
with a singular aptness at once to suggest ideas 
and to avoid image representation: the water, 
wherein the mind could see a symbol of the 
cleansing Spirit, but the eye no attempted like¬ 
ness : the bread and wine, wherein the body and 
the blood are forcibly brought to mind, but no 
personal similitude set before the eye. These 
two only were the unartistic emblems which 
Christ had ordained for his Church. His was to 


THE FULFILMENT-OF THE PROMISE. 51 

be a religion of the understanding and the heart; 
wholly resting on the convictions and the princi¬ 
ples, building nothing on sense, and permitting 
nothing to fancy. 

In strict keeping with this spiritual stamp of 
Christianity was the symbol which, once for all, 
announced to the Church the advent of her con¬ 
quering power—the power by which she was to 
stand before kings, to confound synagogues, to 
silence councils, to still mobs, to confront the 
learned, to illuminate the senseless, and to in¬ 
flame the cold—the power by which, beginning 
at Jerusalem, where the name of Jesus was a by¬ 
word, she was to proclaim His glory through all 
Judea, throughout Samaria, and throughout the 
uttermost parts of the earth. The symbol is a 
tongue, the only instrument of the grandest 
war ever waged : a tongue —man’s speech to his 
fellow-man ; a message in human words to human 
faculties, from the understanding to the under¬ 
standing, from the heart to the heart. A tongue 
of fire —man’s voice, G-od’s truth; man’s speech, 
the Holy Spirit’s inspiration; a human organ, a 
superhuman power: Not one tongue, but cloven 
tongues. As the speech of men is various, here 
we see the Creator taking to himself the lan¬ 
guage of every man’s mother; so that in the very 
words wherein he heard her say, u I love thee,” 


52 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


he might also hear the Father of all say, “ I love 
thee.” 

How does that fire-symbol, shining on the brow 
of the primitive Church, rebuke that system 
which would force all men to worship God in one 
tongue, and that not a tongue of fire, but a dead 
tongue, wherein no man now on earth can hear his 
mother’s tones! Cloven tongues sat on each of 
them; so that each had not only the fire-impulse 
to go and tell aloud the message of reconciliation, 
but also the fire-token that all mankind, of what¬ 
ever nation, kindred, people, or tongue, were 
heirs alike of the gospel salvation, and of the word 
whereby that salvation is proclaimed. 

Blessed be the hour when that tongue of fire 
descended from the Giver of speech into a cold 
world ! Had it never come, my mother might 
have led me, when a child, to see slaughter for 
worship, and I should have taught my little ones 
that stones were gods. “ Blessed be the Lord 
God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous 
things! And blessed be his glorious name for 
ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his 
glory. Amen and Amen !” 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 53 


CHAPTER IV. 

EFFECTS WHICH IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED THE 
BAPTISM OF FIRE. 

SECTION I.—SPIRITUAL EFFECTS. 

The first effect which followed this baptism of 
fire is thus described : “ They were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost.” This expression is so clearly 
joined with the record of the miracle, that we 
easily suppose that it is itself intended to express 
miraculous inspiration; but this is not its con¬ 
stant, nor even its most frequent, use in the New 
Testament. It is sometimes employed to de¬ 
scribe an inspiration antecedent to a miraculous 
manifestation, and sometimes one antecedent to 
a purely moral manifestation. Examples of the 
latter occur in several cases of “speaking the 
word of God with boldness,” when the circum¬ 
stances were such that human nature unassisted 
would have shrunk from the danger. 

5 * 


04 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE 


John the Baptist wrought no miracle; yet of 
him it was said, that he should he “filled with 
the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb.” Here 
the expression denotes some inward and spiritual 
operation, which may take place in the silence 
of an infant’s heart, and show its fruit in the 
quiet ways of childhood. Had he been filled 
with the Holy Ghost immediately before com¬ 
mencing to preach, we should have connected 
the former with the latter, as an official, rather 
than as an inward and moral qualification. When 
men were required to fill the office of deacons— 
not to work miracles, not to speak with tongues, 
but to promote the brotherhood and good feeling 
of the Church, by a better regulation of its daily 
relief to the poor—the qualification demanded 
was, that they should be “ men full of the Holy 
Ghost and wisdom.” Again, Barnabas “ was a 
good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of 
faith.” This is said of him, not as accounting 
for any miracles or tongues, but in relation to the 
fact that, when he had seen the converts at An¬ 
tioch, “ he was glad, and exhorted them all that 
with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the 
Lord.” Again, when the apostles were first 
called to bear witness for Christ before the rulers, 
“Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto 
them,” etc. Here we have no working of mira- 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 55 

cles, no speaking with foreign tongues; but we 
find the man who, when left to his own strength, 
denied his Master, now filled with a moral power 
which makes him bold to confess that Master’s 
name before the rulers of his people, and with a 
wisdom to speak according at once to the oracles 
of God and the exigency of the moment. 

After this first persecution was reported to the 
disciples generally, they, moved and distressed, 
appealed to the Lord in prayer, crying, “And 
now, Lord, behold their threatenings; and grant 
unto thy servants, that with all boldness they 
may speak thy word.” The answer to this prayer 
is recorded in terms more striking than in any 
other case, except that of Pentecost: “And when 
they had prayed, the place was shaken where 
they were assembled together; and they were all 
filled loith the Holy Ghost , and they spake the 
word of God with boldness.” Here, being “filled 
with the Holy Ghost” was not followed by any 
miraculous effects whatever, but was an inspira¬ 
tion, the result of which is special moral strength— 
strength to confront danger and shame—strength 
to declare all the gospel, though, in so doing, 
they perilled every interest dear to them. 

Our Lord had promised to his disciples mira¬ 
culous light and power by the Spirit; but it was 
not as a miracle-working power that he had 


56 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


chiefly foretold his coming. It was as a spiritual 
power, a comforter, a guide unto all truth, a re- 
vealer of the things of God, a remembrancer of 
the words of Christ; one who would convince the 
world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: 
one who would embolden the Lord’s servants to 
bear witness before the most terrible adversaries, 
and would guide their lips to wise and convincing 
speech. Had it been his design that they should ex¬ 
pect the Holy Spirit chiefly as a miraculous power, 
the leading promises would have had this aspect. 

When he first clearly proclaims that the Com¬ 
forter should come as a substitute for his own 
presence, he marks the classes who shall know 
him, and those who shall not. The distinction 
between them lies not in apostleship or ministry, 
not in gifts or powers, but in being of the world, 
and “not of the world:”—“Whom the world 
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither 
knoweth him; but ye know him ; for he dwelleth 
with you, and shall be in you.” (John xiv. 17.) 
Not, “ For he will work miracles by you.” That 
was not promised to all. Not, “ He will prophesy 
by you.” That he did not promise to all. But 
he did promise to all who are “ not of the world,” 
that he should dwell with them and be in them. 
Nor is this promise confined to the apostolic age, 
or to the times immediately succeeding. “ That 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 

he may abide with you for ever,” gives an in¬ 
terest in the personal influences of the Comforter 
to the disciples of all ages, as well as to those of 
the first days. 

This promised substitute for the personal pre¬ 
sence of Christ, was one whom the world should 
not see—who was to be invisible to the natural 
eye, undiscernible by the natural mind; yet known 
and discerned by believers, though not seen; 
known, not by outward sign, but by inward con¬ 
sciousness. Our Lord’s expression is to be strictly 
noted: “The world seeth him not, neither know- 
eth him; but ye know him:” not, “Ye see and 
know him.” In one respect the disciples and the 
world were to be alike: neither should see him. 
Yet the disciples should “know” him; for “He 
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” Their 
knowledge of him was to come not by sense, but 
by consciousness. Was this “being in them” to 
be an ordinary grace of believers, or to be coupled 
only with office or supernatural endowments? 
The want of it is made by St. Paul conclusive 
against the claim of any man to be considered 
even a member of Christ: “Ye are not in the 
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit ot 
God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the 
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” This passage, 
however, like many others, expresses only a par- 


58 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


ticipation of the Spirit in some degree, without 
indicating what that degree might be; leaving it 
open to doubt, were there no other passages bear¬ 
ing upon the point, whether some might not be 
blessed with the indwelling of the Spirit, who yet 
were to be debarred from the fuller privilege ex¬ 
pressed in the strong words, “ filled with the Holy 
Ghost.” 

The apostles themselves had doubtless received 
the Spirit in some measure before the day of Pen¬ 
tecost; for our Lord had breathed upon them im¬ 
mediately after his resurrection, and said, “ Re¬ 
ceive ye the Holy Ghost.” Yet in the time which 
intervened between that and Pentecost, whatever 
might have been the advancement of their spirit¬ 
ual condition beyond what it was before, it rested 
far behind that which immediately followed upon 
the baptism of fire. It was only then that they 
were u filled with the Holy Ghost.” We find, 
however, that even the expression, “be filled,” is 
applied broadly to ordinary believers; and that, 
too, not merely as describing the actual enjoy¬ 
ments of some individuals, but as a precept appli¬ 
cable to all: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein 
is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.” What¬ 
ever is meant by being “ filled with the Holy Ghost” 
is, by these plain words, laid upon us as our duty. 
Looking at it in the aspect of a duty, and thinking 


EFFECTS OF TIIE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 59 


of the moral height which the expression indicates 
above our ordinary life, we shrink. Can such an 
obligation lie upon us? Is it not commanding 
the purblind to gaze upon the sun? And yet, 
whatever is the duty of man must he the will of 
God. In this view, then, the commandment 
; seems to carry even a stronger encouragement 
than the promise—seems, in fact, to sum up many 
promises in one conclusive appeal, saying: “All 
i things are now ready. The Lord has provided: 
the fountain is open: the pure river of the water 
of life, clear as crystal, is proceeding out of the 
; throne of God and of the Lamb: you are called to 
|l its banks, and with you it rests to drink and be 
' filled with the Spirit.” 

He who has not received the Holy Ghost has 
not yet entered into the real Christian life: does 
not know the “ peace which passeth understand¬ 
ing:” has in no sense “ Christ in him the hope of 
glory.” He is still “in the flesh,” in his natural 
and carnal state; for the Spirit of God does not 
dwell in him. The difference between receiving 
the Spirit and being filled with the Spirit, is a 
difference not of kind, but of degree. In the one 
case, the light of heaven has reached the dark 
chamber, disturbing night, but leaving some ob¬ 
scurity and some deep shadows: in the other, 
that light has filled the whole chamber, and made 





60 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


every corner bright. This state of the soul—be¬ 
ing “filled with the Holy Ghost”—is the normal 
antecedent of true prophetic or miraculous power, 
but may exist without it: without it, in individuals 
who are never endowed with the gift either of 
prophecy or of miracles; without it, in individuals 
who have such powers, but in whom they are not 
in action, as in John the Baptist before his min¬ 
istry commenced. 

Eyesight is the necessary basis of what is called 
a painter’s or a poet’s eye; the sense of hearing, 
the necessary basis of what is called a musical ear; 
yet eyesight may exist where there is no poet’s or 
painter’s eye, and hearing where there is no mu¬ 
sical ear. So may the human soul be “ filled with 
the Holy Ghost,” having every faculty illuminated, 
and every affection purified, without any miracu¬ 
lous gift. On the other hand, the miraculous 
power does not necessarily imply the spiritual ful¬ 
ness; for Paul puts the supposition of speaking with 
tongues, prophesying, removing mountains, and 
yet lacking charity, that love which must be shed 
abroad in every heart that is full of the Holy Ghost. 

“ Filled with the Holy Ghost!” Thrice blessed 
word! thanks be to God, that ever the tongues of 
men were taught it! It declares not only that 
the Lord has returned to his temple in the human 
soul, but that he has filled the house with his 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 61 

glory; pervaded every chamber, every court, by 
his manifested presence. 

“That ye might be filled with all the fulness 
of God,” is a prayer at which we falter. Is it not 
too much to ask ? Is it not a sublime flight after 
the impossible ? Let us remember it is not, “ That 
ye might contain all the fulness of God.” That 
would be more impossible than that your chamber 
should contain all the light of the sun. But it 
can be filled with the light of the sun—so filled ' 
that not a particle of unillumined air shall remain 
within it. When, therefore, the hand of the 
apostle leads you up toward the countenance of 
your Father; when you approach to see the light 
which outshines all lights, “the glory of God in 
the face of Christ Jesus,” put away all thought 
of containing what the heavens cannot contain; 
but, humbly opening your heart, say, “Infinite 
Light, fill this little chamber!” 

Reason says, “It maybe;” Scripture says, “It 
may be;” but a shrinking of the heart says, “It 
cannot be; we can never ‘be filled with all the 
fulness of God/ ” When Paul had uttered that 
prayer, perhaps this same shrinking of heart had 
almost come over him: how does he meet it? 
Glancing down at his wonderful petition, and up 
at his almighty King, he breaks out, “Now unto 
6 


62 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above 
all that we ask or think, according to the power 
that worketh in us,—unto him be glory in the 
Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world 
without end. Amen.” Yea, Amen, ten thou¬ 
sand thousand times. The words of this doxo- 
logv had been holy and blessed in any connection; 
but they are doubly blessed, closely following, as 
they do, the prayer, “That ye might be filled with 
the fulness of God.” Nor should we forget that 
the power which Paul here adores is not some 
abstract and unmoved power of Deity, but “ the 
power which worketh in us.” What is this power ? 
The Holy Ghost—“might by his Spirit in the in¬ 
ner man.” 

What a labor of expression do we find in 2 Cor. 
ix. 8, when Paul wants to convey his own idea of 
the power of grace, as practically enabling men to 
do the will of God! “And God is able to make 
all grace abound toward you; that ye, always hav¬ 
ing all sufficiency in all things, may abound to 
every good work.” Here we have “abound!” 
twice, and “all” four times, in one short sen¬ 
tence.* * “Abound” means not only to fill, but 
to overflow. The double overflow, first of grace 


* In the Greek nag occurs five times, the last beinj 

*rav epyov uyadov —rendered “(very good work.” 



EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIIIE. t)3 


from God to us, then of the same grace from us to 
“ every good work,” is a glorious comment on our 
Lord’s word: “ lie that believeth me, as the Scrip¬ 
ture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers 
of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit 
which they that believe on him should receive; 
for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because 
that Jesus was not yet glorified.” The believer’s 
heart, in itself incapable of holy living, as a mar¬ 
ble cistern of yielding a constant stream, is placed, 
like the cistern, in communication with an invisi¬ 
ble source: the source constantly overflows into 
the cistern, and it again overflows. Happy the 
heart thus filled, thus overflowing with the Hoty 
Spirit! Where is the fountain of those living 
waters, that we may bring our hearts thither? 
“He showed me a pure river of water of life, 
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of 
God and of the Lamb.” (Rev. xxii. 1.) There 
cs the fount, there the stream: the Spirit proceed- 
ing from the Father and the Son. To the throne 
of grace! to the mercy-seat! and you are at the 
fountain of all life. Nor seek a scant supply at 
that source. “Be filled with the Spirit,” sounds 
in your ears; and, if you believe, not only will a 
well “spring up within” you, but rivers shall flow 
out from you. 

The Spirit, as replenishing the believer with 


64 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


actual virtues and practical holiness, is ever kept 
before our eye in the apostolic writings. “ That 
ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleas¬ 
ing, being fruitful in every good work, and in¬ 
creasing in the knowledge of God : strengthened 
with all might, according to his glorious power, 
unto all patience and long-suffering with joyful¬ 
ness. 77 

Putting these various expressions together, what 
a view do they give of the riches of grace !—“ all 
sufficiency/ 7 “in all things/ 7 “always/ 7 “abound 
to every good work/ 7 “fruitful in every good 
work/ 7 “strengthened with all might/ 7 “accord¬ 
ing to his glorious power/ 7 “according to the 
power which worketh in us/ 7 “ filled with all the 
fulness of God. 77 Eternal Spirit, proceeding from 
the Father and the Son, answer and disperse all 
our unbelief by filling our hearts with Thyself! 

The expression, “ filled with the Holy Ghost/ 7 
places before us the human spirit restored to its 
original and highest fellowship. In many respects 
that spirit is alone in this world. It finds here 
nothing that is its own equal. Every thing upon 
which it can look is its inferior in both nature and 
powers. Earth and sky, beasts and birds, are the 
instruments of its comfort, or the subjects of its 
thoughts; but never can share in its cares or affec* 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 6fc 

tions. The fields never say, u We enjoy thy pre¬ 
sence/' nor the stars, “We return thine admira¬ 
tion." The lower animals can take no part in its 
deep movements of hope and fear: can shed no 
light on its problems of justice, pardon, and the 
world to come. In the spirit of its fellow-man 
alone can it find an equal; and communion with 
it, though it often solaces, often both wounds and 
defiles. Yet it is the nature of man to seek an 
object kindred to himself, but superior. Probably 
this is necessary to all natures which are at the 
same time rational and finite. But where can man 
find a being kindred to himself, and yet superior 
to him ? Below the sky he is head, yet upward 
his instincts turn—upward toward some one 
brighter or greater than himself. 

What can answer to those upward aspirations 
of the soul ? Its Creator. After years spent in 
search of happiness, the human spirit penitently 
returns toward its God, and, trusting in the atone¬ 
ment of his Son, finds forgiveness for the past. 
Then does the great Comforter, the Witness of 
the Father’s love, the Spirit of adoption, give the 
manifestation of the Divine favor which David 
delighted to call “ the light of thy countenance." 
This manifestation may be gentle, or it may be 
rapturous; but in any case it is comforting. 

6 * 


66 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


When gentlest, it touches chords of satisfaction 
more delicate than were ever reached by the most 
subtle joy of intellect: when most rapturous, it 
carries with it an assent of the whole judgment 
such as no previous enjoyment, however tranquil, 
commanded. The thirst of the soul has no deeper 
seat than is now reached. Wisdom has no re¬ 
monstrance, expectation no disappointment, fear 
no warning. It may be in a profound calm, it 
may be in an unspeakable joy; but it is with 
core-deep consciousness that the soul feels it has 
now touched, yea, tasted, its supreme good, and 
that, for time or for eternity, it needs no more 
than to abide in this blessedness, and improve 
this fellowship. The gloomy chamber of which 
we spoke a little while ago was entered by the 
sunbeams noiselessly and impalpably : no hand 
could feel, no ear could hear them as they came: 
nothing but an eye within that chamber could 
discern the great change. It remains the same 
chamber, with the same contents; yet every thing 
is changed, even to the very air. So it is with the 
soul of man when the Lord saith, “My Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him, and 
make our abode with him.” This is not only the 
presence of God with the spirit of man, but a 
special and a manifested presence. 

How can that be special which is universal ? 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 67 

God is not far from every one of us : every man 
who moves upon the earth moves in Him. How 
then can he he specially present with one man 
more than with another ? Strictly speaking, per¬ 
haps it is more a question of manifestation than 
of presence. Electric agency may be present 
everywhere; but it rarely makes itself visible in 
a flash. Heat may be present everywhere; but 
is not everywhere manifested by fire. Jude said, 
“ Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself 
unto us, and not unto the world V } God is with 
all, but is unseen by any eye, and, alas! undis¬ 
cerned by many a spirit. He does not withdraw 
his presence from any part of his universe, or his 
care from any of his creatures; but, as a human 
frame may be moving amid the light of the sun, 
and see no light, so may a soul be moving in that 
universe which is fuller of God than the atmo¬ 
sphere at noontide is of sunbeams, and yet dis¬ 
cern no God. 

All objects require a suitable faculty, or they 
are unperceived : sound exists not to the eye; 
light exists not to the ear; flavor exists not to the 
touch. It is of no avail that an object is, unless 
our nature has the special faculty whereby we can 
descry its presence. A strong magnetic power 
may be acting on the compass, whereon the 
steersman concentrates his attention; but eye, ear, 


68 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


hand, smell, taste, give no report of its presence 
to the mind; and he first learns that it was there, 
by the crash of the ship on a coast which he 
thought was far away. 

Our Lord said, in reply to Jude, “ If any man 
love me, he will keep my word; and my Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him, and 
make our abode with him.” This is more than 
mere presence. Presence may be unfelt, and 
therefore forgotten : may be with displeasure, and 
therefore joyless. But this is presence mani¬ 
fested —“ We will come to him :” gracious —the 
coming is from u love :” habitual and involving 
fellowship —both of these ideas lie in, 11 Make our 
abode with him.” 

Two men are walking upon the same plain, and 
each turns his face toward the sky. The light of 
the sun is shining upon both, but one sees no sun, 
while the other sees not only light, but the face 
of the sun, and his eye is overpowered with its 
glory. What makes the difference between the 
two ? Not that one is iu darkness, and the other 
in light: not that one is near the sun, and the 
other far away : not that one has an eye differently 
constituted from the other; but simply that there 
is a thin cloud between heaven and the one, and 
no cloud between it and the other. The latter 
cannot only trace evidence that there is a sun, and 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 6b 

that he is up, but has the presence of that sun 
before his face, and his glory filling his eye. So 
two men stand in relation to the universal and all¬ 
present God. One believes, infers, intellectually 
knows, that he is: ay, that he is present; yet he 
discerns him not: it is a matter of inference, not 
of consciousness; and though believing that God 
is, and that he is present, he sins. Another 
spiritually discerns, feels his presence; and he 
learns to “ stand in awe, and sin not.” 

Suppose the case of a cripple who had spent his 
life in a room where the sun was never seen. He 
has heard of its existence, he believes in it, and, 
indeed, has seen enough of its light to give him 
high ideas of its glory. Wishing to see the sun, 
he is taken out at night into the streets of an 
illuminated city. At first, he is delighted, daz¬ 
zled; but, after he has had time to reflect, he 
finds darkness spread amid the lights, and he 
asks, “ Is this the sun V’ He is taken out under 
the starry sky, and is enraptured; but on reflec¬ 
tion finds that night covers the earth, and again 
asks, “ Is this the sun V* He is carried out some 
bright day at noontide, and no sooner does his eye 
open on the sky than all question is at an end. 
There is but one sun. His eye is content: it has 
seen its highest object, and feels that there is 
nothing brighter. So with the soul: it enjoys 


70 


TUI; TONGUE OE FIRE. 


all lights; yet, amid those of art and nature, ia 
still inquiring for something greater. But when 
it is led by the reconciling Christ into the pre¬ 
sence of the Father, and he lifts up upon it the 
light of his countenance, all thought of any thing 
greater disappears. As there is but one sun, so 
there is but one God. The soul which once dis¬ 
cerns and knows him, feels that greater or brighter 
there is none, and that the only possibility of 
ever beholding more glory is by drawing nearer 
The operation of the Holy Spirit implies a 
quickening of the nature of man by an imparta- 
tion of the Divine nature, and every increase of 
it implies a fuller communion of the Eternal Fa¬ 
ther with his adopted child. When the soul of 
man is “ filled with the Holy Ghost/’ then has 
God that wherein he does rejoice, “a temple not 
made with hands,” not reared by human art, of 
unconscious and insensible material; a temple 
created by his own word, and living by his own 
breath. In that living temple he displays some¬ 
what of his glory. In the Shechinah of the 
sanctuary he could manifest majesty only. In 
this living temple he can manifest truth, purity, 
tenderness, forgiveness, justice—the whole round 
of such attributes as his children below the sky 
are capable of comprehending. 

Thus inhabited, not only is the soul of man 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 71 

unutterly blessed, but his body reaches dignity, 
the thought of which might pake even flesh sing 
“ Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost 
which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye 
are not your own.” Not your own, for purchase 
has been made: “ Ye are bought with a price;” 
not your own, for possession has been taken : 
“ Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, 
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 
(1 Cor. iii. 16, etc.) A holy man, whose pre¬ 
sence breathes an unworldly air around him, 
whose name is identified with a constancy of 
godly actions, is a visible monument and re¬ 
membrancer of God. Each member of his body 
is as a temple vessel. By it holy works are done, 
and the will of the parent Spirit on moral points 
expressed by material instruments. His spirit is 
led by the Spirit of God. His “ mortal body” is 
quickened by the Spirit “that dwelleth in him.” 
He not only “ lives in the Spirit,” but “ walks in 
the Spirit”—his visible acts, as well as his hid¬ 
den emotions, being “after the Spirit.” The na¬ 
tural man has disappeared from his life and 
actions. Another creature lives. Thoughts, 
purposes, works, which his nature never prompted, 
which, when prompted by revelation, his nature 
could not attain to, now abound, as sweet grapes 
on a good vine. This precept is embodied in his 


72 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


life : “ Neither yield ye your members as instru¬ 
ments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield 
yourselves unto God as those that are alive from 
the dead, and your members as instruments of 
righteousness unto God.” (Rom. vi. 13.) 

In this the power of the Holy Ghost is practi¬ 
cally manifested by a reversal of the relations of 
the human spirit and the flesh. To persons 
yet in the body, the apostle says, “ Ye are not in 
the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of 
God dwell in you.” Not in the flesh, yet in the 
body ! The unconverted man has a spirit, but it 
is carnalized; the play of its powers, the studies 
of the intellect, the flights of the imagination, 
the impulses of the heart, are dictated by motives 
which all range below the sky and halt on this 
side of the tomb. The spirit is the servant of 
the flesh; and man differs from perishing animals 
chiefly in this, that for carnal purposes and de¬ 
lights he commands the service of a spiritual 
agent—his own soul. 

The Holy Spirit, as man’s regenerator, reverses 
this state of things. He quickens the spirit, and 
through it quickens the frame, so that, instead of 
spiritual powers being carnalized, a mortal body is 
spiritualized; instead of soul and spirit being sub¬ 
jected by the flesh, flesh and blood become instru- 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 78 


merits of tlie Spirit. Limbs move on works of 
heavenly origin and intent. Thus a direct con¬ 
nection is established between the will of the Su¬ 
preme Spirit and the material organs of man. A 
purpose originates in the mind of God; by his 
Spirit it is silently and swiftly transmitted to the 
spirit of his child; and by this to the “mortal 
body.” Then, as an iron wire, on the shore of 
the Crimea, expresses the will of the British 
Queen in London, so do the earthly members of 
a mortal express, in the outward and physical 
world, the purpose of the Holy One. This is 
redemption achieved: this is adoption in its is¬ 
sues : this is the new life: this is human nature 
restored, man walking in the light; “ God dwell¬ 
ing in him, and he in God.” Then his life is a 
light, and a light so pure, that it gives those on 
whom it shines, not the idea of “ good nature,” 
but of something heavenly. They see his good 
works, and u glorify his Father which is in hea¬ 
ven not extol his character; but feel that he is 
raised above his own character, and is “God’s 
workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus unto 
good works.” 

A piece of iron is dark and cold : imbued with 
a certain degree of heat, it becomes almost burn¬ 
ing without any change of appearance: imbued 


74 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


with a still greater degree, its very appearance 
changes to that of solid fire, and it sets fire to 
whatever it touches. A piece of water without 
heat is solid and brittle: gently warmed, it 
flows: further heated, it mounts to the sky. An 
organ filled with the ordinary degree of air which 
exists everywhere, is dumb: the touch of the 
player can elicit but a clicking of the keys. 
Throw in not another air, but an unsteady cur¬ 
rent of the same air, and sweet, but imperfect 
and uncertain notes immediately respond to the 
player’s touch : increase the current to a full sup¬ 
ply, and every pipe swells with music. Such is 
the soul without the Holy Ghost; and such are 
the changes which pass upon it when it receives 
the Holy Ghost, and when it is “ filled with the 
Holy Ghost.” In the latter state only is it fully 
imbued with the Divine nature; bearing in all 
its manifestations some plain resemblance to its 
God; conveying to all on whom it acts some im¬ 
pression of him; mounting heavenward in all its 
movements, and harmoniously pouring forth, from 
all its faculties, the praises of the Lord. 

The moral change wrought in the disciples, by 
the new baptism of the Spirit, is strikingly dis¬ 
played in the case of one man. A difficult ser¬ 
vice was to be performed in Jerusalem that day. 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 75 

Had it been desired to find a man in London who 
would have gone down to Whitehall a few weeks 
after Charles was beheaded, and, addressing 
Cromwell's soldiers, have endeavored to persuade 
them that he whom they had executed was not 
only a king and a good one, but a prophet of God, 
and that, therefore, they had been guilty of more 
than regicide—of sacrilege: although England 
had brave men then, it may be questioned whe¬ 
ther any one could have been found to bear such 
a message to that audience. 

The service which had then to be performed in 
Jerusalem was similar to this. It was needful 
that some one should stand up under the shadow 
of the temple, and, braving chief priests and 
mobs alike, assert that he whom they had shame¬ 
fully executed seven weeks ago, was Israel's long- 
looked-for Messiah : that they had been guilty of 
a sin which had no name : had raised their hands 
against “ God manifest in the fleshhad, in 
words strange to human ears, li killed the Prince 
of life.” Who was thus to confront the rage 
of the mob and the malice of the priests? We 
see a man rising, filled with a holy fire, so that he 
totally forgets his danger, and seems not even 
conscious that he is doing a heroic act. He casts 
back upon the mockers their charge, and pro¬ 
ceeds to open and to press home his tremendous 


76 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


accusation, as if lie were a king upon a throne, 
and each man before him a lonely and defenceless 
culprit. 

Who is this man? Have we not seen him 
before? Is it possible that it can be Peter? 
We know him of old : he has a good deal of zeal, 
but little steadiness: he means well, and, when 
matters are smooth, can serve well; but when 
difficulties and adversaries rise before him, his 
moral courage fails. How short a time is it ago 
since we saw him tried! He had been resolving 
that, come what might, he would stand by his 
Master to the last. Others might flinch, he 
would stand. Soon the Master was in the hands 
of enemies. Yet his case was by no means lo&t. 
The Governor was on his side : many of the peo¬ 
ple were secretly for him: nothing could be 
proved against him; and, above all, he who had 
saved others could save himself. Yet, as Peter 
saw scowling faces, his courage failed. A ser¬ 
vant-maid looked into his eye, and his eye fell. 
She said she thought he belonged to Jesus of 
Nazareth: his heart sank, and he said, “No.” 
Then another looked in his face, and repeated 
the same suspicion. Now, of course, he was more 
cowardly, and repeated his “No.” A third 
looked upon him, and insisted that he belonged 
to the accused Prophet. How his poor heart was 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF ITRE. 77 

all fluttering; and, to make it plain that he had 
nothing to do with Jesus of Nazareth, he began 
to curse and swear. 

Is it within the same breast where this pale 
and tremulous heart quaked, that we see glowing 
a brave heart which dreads neither the power of 
the authorities nor the violence of the populace; 
which faces every prejudice and every vice of 
Jerusalem, every bitter Pharisee and every street- 
brawler, as if they were no more than straying 
and troublesome sheep ? Is the Peter of Pilate’s 
hall the Peter of Pentecost, with the same natu¬ 
ral powers, the same natural force of character, 
the same training, and the same resolutions ? If 
so, what a difference is made in a man by the one 
circumstance of being filled with the Holy Ghost! 

0 for high examples of God’s moral “ work¬ 
manship !” O for men instinct with the Spirit: 
the countenance glowing as a transparency with 
a lamp behind it; the eye shining with a purer, 
truer light than any that genius or good-nature 
ever shed; limbs agile for any act of prayer, of 
praise, of zeal, for any errand of compassion; 
and a tongue of fire ! 0 for men on whom the 

silent verdict of the observer would be, “ He is a 
good man, and full of the Holy Ghost!” Never, 
perhaps, did earthly eyes see more frequently 
7* 


78 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


than we see in our day, men with ordinary Chris, 
tian excellences—men in private life whose walk 
is blameless—men in the ministry who are ad¬ 
mirable, worthy, and useful. But are not men 
“ full of the Holy Ghost” a rare and min¬ 
ished race? Are those whose entire spirit be¬ 
speaks a walk of prayer, such as we would as¬ 
cribe to Enoch or to John ) whose words fall with 
a demonstration of the Spirit, and a power such 
as we conceive attended Paul or Apollos; who 
make on believers the impression of being im¬ 
mediate and mighty instruments of God, and on 
unbelievers the impression of being dangerous to 
come near, lest they should convert them—are 
such men often met with ? 

Do not even the good frequently speak as if we 
were not to look for such burning and shining 
lights ? as if we must be content in our educated 
and intelligent age with a style of holiness more 
level and less startling? Do not many make up 
their minds never more to see men such as their 
fathers saw—men at whose prayer a wondrous 
power of God was ever ready to fall, whether 
upon two or three kneeling in a cabin, and won¬ 
dering how the unlearned could find such wis¬ 
dom, or on the great multitude, wondering how 
the learned could find such simplicity ? Never 
more see such men ! The Lord forbid ! Beturn ; 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 79 

0 Power of the Pentecost, return to thy people ! 
Shed down thy flame on many heads! To us, 
as to our fathers, and to those of the old time 
before them, give fulness of grace! Without 
thee we can do nothing; but filled with the 
Holy Ghost, the excellency of the power will be 
of thee, 0 God ! and not of us. 


SECTION II.—MIRACULOUS EFFECTS. 

t( They began to speak with other tongues, 
as the Spirit gave them utterance.” It is not 
said, “ with unknown tongues.” In fact, the ex¬ 
pression u unknown tongues” was never used by 
an inspired writer. In the Epistle to the Corin¬ 
thians, it is found in the English version; but 
the word “ unknown” is in italics, showing that 
it is not taken from the original. Speaking un¬ 
known tongues was never heard of in the apos¬ 
tolic days. That miracle first occurred in Lon¬ 
don some years ago. On the day of Pentecost 
no man pretended to speak unknown tongues; 
but just as if we in London suddenly began to 
speak German, French, Spanish, Kussian, Turk¬ 
ish, and other foreign languages, so it was with 
them. Not one tongue was spoken that day but 
a man was found in the streets of Jerusalem to 



80 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


turn round, and cry, “ This is my own tongue, 
wherein I was born!” The miracle lay in the 
power of speaking the tongues of adjacent nations, 
from which individuals were in Jerusalem at that 
very time. This is not only miraculous, but a 
miracle in a very amazing form; perhaps, as to 
its form, the most amazing of all miracles. 

Matter is a great and pregnant thing. To us 
its properties are not only wonderful, but exceed¬ 
ingly mysterious. When we see it flourishing 
while we fade, towering in hills, or careering in 
waves, or spread out in the firmament, we almost 
feel as if it were greater than we. Yet are we 
ever proving that, in spite of appearances, matter 
is less than mind. Mind searches out matter, 
wields it, moulds it, makes it the servant of its 
will. Mind, then, being the superior, it follows 
that a work wrought in mind is greater than one 
wrought in matter. Miracles in seas, mountains, 
the firmament, or the human body, display a 
power which rules the frame of nature and the 
frame of man. Yet, as the sphere of these is 
matter, the whole order may be called the physi¬ 
cal miracle —works above nature, wrought upon 
physical agents in attestation of the revelation of 
Grod. But beyond this lies a higher miracle, of 
which the sphere is mind; and which, therefore, 
we may call the mental miracle —works above 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 81 

nature wrought in mind in attestation of the 
revelation of God. Of this order two forms had 
been witnessed previously—inspiration and pro¬ 
phecy; but now a new miracle in mind was to 
challenge the belief of all Jerusalem. 

This miracle, as to its moral impression, dif¬ 
fered totally from all physical miracles: even from 
that complex and most peculiar miracle, the rais¬ 
ing of the dead, wherein we see a power which 
matter and spirit, animal life and mental illumi¬ 
nation, equally obey. That miracle stands alone; 
yet the chief impression which it makes, and cer¬ 
tainly the impression which all purely physical 
miracles make, is that of power. They suggest, 
also, indeed, the idea of wisdom, else the power 
would not go so unerringly to its end; and of 
goodness, else power so irresistible would move, 
not to bless, but to destroy; yet the leading im¬ 
pression produced is undoubtedly that of power. 
In such miracles we recognize chiefly “ the high 
hand and the stretched-out arm.” 

In inspiration, we see the mind of man enabled 
to sit down among the morning mists of things, 
and to write a book which will stand while the 
world stands. In prophecy, we see the mind 
enabled to look through a thousand years, and 
describe what lies beyond so plainly, that, when 
it is unfolded to ordinary sight, it shall at once be 


82 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


recognized. Both these miracles bring us, not so 
much into the presence of a Buler, as into the 
presence of a Spirit. 

In beholding a sea dried, or a wilderness strewn 
with food, we feel ourselves near the Lord of na¬ 
ture and the Stay of life. So here we feel our¬ 
selves near the Fount of all mind, whose own 
knowledge depends neither on material phenomena 
nor on the lapse of time; whose mode of acting 
on the human mind is not by laws analogous to 
those whereby the latter acts on material organs, 
or on its kindred minds through them. As, how¬ 
ever, we watch the miracle of tongues, a strange 
solemnity falls upon us : we feel as if we had left 
the region where mind slowly and dimly learns 
through sense, had crossed some invisible line into 
the land of spirits, and were standing before the 
Original Mind. What knowledge of mind so 
minute as that which scans every sign whereby 
every mind expresses its ideas? What power 
over mind so unsearchable as that which can 
fill it in an instant with new signs for all its 
ideas—signs never before present to it, yet an¬ 
swering exactly to those which others had been 
trained from childhood to use ? 

A number of Galilean peasants issue from an 
upper room into the streets of Jerusalem. A 
strange fire is in every eye, a strange light on 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 8S 


every countenance. Each one looks joyful and 
benignant, as if he felt that he was carrying the 
balm for the world’s sores in his breast. Each 
has plainly a world to say, and wants listeners. 
Probably their steps turn toward the temple, 
which during the ten days had divided their pre¬ 
sence with the upper room. One meets with an 
Arab, and addresses him : another goes up to a 
Roman, and in a moment they are deeply en¬ 
gaged : a third sees a Persian, a fourth an African 
from Cyrene; and, as they go along, each one at¬ 
taches himself to some foreigner. He tells a 
strange tale, strange in its substance, equally 
strange in its eloquence : a new and unaccountable 
eloquence, wonderful not for grace, expression, or 
sweet sound, but for power. 

One hearer in Latin, another in Coptic, another 
in Persian, another in Greek, exclaims first at the 
wonder of the story, and then at the wonder of 
the narrator: ( A.rt not thou a Galilean? whence 
then hast thou this fluency in Latin ?” He an¬ 
swers that he has received it to-day by gift from 
God. A smile curls on the lip of the Roman, 
and he turns round to a neighboring group. There 
an Egyptian has just been putting the same'ques¬ 
tion, and received the same answer. Yonder is 
an excited little knot, where a Parthian declares 
that the tongue in which a man has told him of 


84 


THE TONGUE OE FIRE. 


the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, 
is his mother-tongue. People from Jerusalem are 
mocking, and saying, u The men are full of new 
wine;” but the strangers, on speaking one to 
another, find that they have all been hearing pre¬ 
cisely the same things in their u own tongues.” 

Those faces of different complexions, on com¬ 
paring their opinions, darkle with awe. They 
find that in all this diversity of tongues the same 
tidings are repeated, and thus see the unity of 
matter in the variety of language : they find tha* 
the men who speak are unschooled peasants, yet 
are all gifted with the same unheard-of power; 
and thus see in the variety of speakers the unity 
of inspiration. The tongues are the tongues of all 
mankind; but the impulse is one, and the message 
one! From what centre do all these languages 
issue ? The same instinct which leads back the 
thought from speech to a mind, leads it back from 
this universal speech till it stands awe-struck in 
the presence of the Central Intellect of the Spirit 
which u formeth the spirit of man within him”— 
of the Supreme Mind, to whidh all mind is com¬ 
mon ground—of the Father of thought! 

It would be impossible to conceive any form of 
credential so well framed to certify that a doctrine 
was the immediate issue of the mind of Grod. The 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 85 

bare thought of such a miracle as that of tongues, 
had it only been a thought, would have made in 
itself an era in the history of man’s intellect; 
and it may be fairly questioned whether, such a 
thought could have originated in any thing else 
than in the fact. The leading feature of the new 
religion was to be a Divine teaching upon things 
invisible and spiritual—on points of which the 
unaided powers of man could give no conclusive 
solution. For such a teaching no attestation could 
be so apposite as one that accredited it as a mes¬ 
sage from the Spirit which “ searcheth all things.” 
The universal call to man was worthily issued into 
the world by a sign which showed that it came 
directly from the only wise God, who gives un¬ 
derstanding, and holds the keys of thought. The 
command of all languages, by one consentaneous 
impulse, proclaimed the new message to be the 
Word of God. 

The great question for humanity is, Hath God 
spoken ? Are we poor wanderers each left here to 
his own light, and Heaven looking down in eternal 
silence on all our straying and perplexity ? Hath 
the Parent Spirit, whence these spirits of ours 
come, surrounded them with his infinite presence 
at every step of their stumbling and perilous 
8 


86 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


journey, and never once, from the day of Adam 
to our day, signified that he saw, and heard, and 
felt ? Has he dealt with the soul of man as with 
“ the spirit of a beast” that could never bless him, 
and never break his law? Are all words the 
words of erring man, and all lights those doubt¬ 
ful and deceptive lights, following which so many 
have miserably perished? Is all doctrine the 
guesses of thinkers, or the juggling of priests ? 
Has God never, never spoken ? 

“God spake all these words, and said !” 
On the Pentecost of Israel, from out of the fire on 
Sinai, came “a mighty voice,” which, sweeping 
down from the distant peak as if from a throne at 
hand, filled the ears of three millions of people, or 
more, as if they had been a little group. Ten 
times the Voice sounded mysteriously over all 
that awed and quivering host, till human nature, 
smitten to the core, cried out, “Wedie, we die!” 
The Voice had uttered only gentle and wholesome 
laws, laws binding man to God, and man to man, 
laying sure paths to peaee and blessedness; but 
human nature was already guilty under these laws, 
and the Voice awoke only the response, “ Let not 
God speak with us, lest we die.” (Exod. xx. 19.) 

Thus, in the old time, a whole nation eould be 
appealed to, that all words were not uncertain, nor 
all questions open: “ Ye came near and stood 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 87 

under the mountain; and the mountain burned 
with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, 
clouds, and thick darkqess. And the Lord spake 
unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard 
the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; 
only ye heard a voice. And he declared unto you 
his covenant which he commanded you to per¬ 
form, even ten commandments; and he wrote 
them upon two tables of stone.” 

As in the Pentecost of Israel, so in the Pente¬ 
cost of Christianity, the Lord once more speaks 
“out of the midst of the fire.” Now, however, 
the accompanying tokens are not physical, but 
mental: employing many human minds and 
human tongues as his instruments, yet manifest¬ 
ing the unity of that impulse whereby they are all 
moved, he makes not merely the people of one 
nation, but the representatives of all nations, feel 
that Gob hath spoken. Yes, tell it wherever 
there are ears to hear, tell it to the ends of the 
earth, God hath spoken: man has not been for¬ 
gotten : guesses are not all our light: there is a 
Gospel, a “ speech of God:” questions affecting 
salvation are settled; and our way to holy living 
and happy dying traced by the Hand which rules 
both worlds. 


With regard to the gift of tongues, some curi- 


88 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


ous questions have been raised, especially by the 
learned. One is as to whether the miracle was 
really in the speaker, and mot in the hearer; so 
that although all that was spoken was in one lan¬ 
guage, the ordinary language of the disciples, yet 
the hearers of different nations each heard in his 
own tongue. For this opinion, as for all opinions, 
it is possible to cite some considerable names. 
But had it been as here supposed, the symbol of 
the miracle would not have been cloven tongues, 
but manifold ears. The double declaration of 
the narrative perfectly corresponds with the sym¬ 
bol. As regards the speakers, it says that they 
11 spake with other tongues;” as regards the 
hearers, that they “ heard every man in his own 
tongue.” 

When St. Paul finds fault with the use of the 
gift of tongues in Corinth, he does not blame the 
hearers for lacking an ear that would interpret 
their own tongue into foreign ones, but blames 
the speakers for speaking “with the tongue words 
not easy to be understood” by the unlearned; and 
the only reason he ever assigns why the auditors 
could not understand is, that they were unlearned; 
clearly showing that a foreign language was em¬ 
ployed, which education might have enabled them 
to understand, but for the understanding of which 
miraculous power does not seem ever to have been 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FliLE. 89 

given. If the supposition of the miracle in hear¬ 
ing, instead of in speech, has been resorted to with 
a view to simplify the miracle, it defeats its own 
object; for, to sustain that supposition, the mira¬ 
culous influence must have been exerted on a num¬ 
ber of persons as much greater than in the other 
case, as the hearers were more numerous than the 
speakers. At the same time, the nature of the 
miraculous operation would be in every respect 
equally extraordinary. 

Another question is as to whether the speakers 
understood what they said in the foreign languages. 
The doubt as to this is not raised upon the narra¬ 
tive of the Pentecost, but on certain expressions 
used by St. Paul in writing to the Corinthians. 
There he says, “Let him that speaketh in an un¬ 
known tongue pray that he may interpret;” and 
again, “If one speak in an unknown tongue, let 
one interpret.” Hence it would appear that some 
could speak with tongues, who could not render 
into their own language that which they had 
spoken. This, however, is not clear; for he also 
says, “ Greater is he that prophesieth than he that 
speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that 
the Church may receive edification” Here he 
supposes, that the person who possesses the gift 
of tongues does also possess the power of inter- 
8 * 


90 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


preting into the common language that which he 
has uttered in a miraculous way. 

But, even granting that some were unable to 
interpret, so as to edify the Church, that which 
they had themselves spoken, it would appear that 
this did not at all arise from their not understand¬ 
ing what they had said, but from their being des¬ 
titute of the gift of prophecy, whereby only they 
could edify believers. As to any doubt whether 
the person speaking really understood his own ut¬ 
terances, it is completely removed by the text, 1 
Cor. xiv. 14-19: “For if I pray in an unknown 
tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding 
is unfruitful. What is it then ? I will pray with 
the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding 
also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing 
with the understanding also. Else when thou 
shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occu- 
pieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy 
giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not 
what thou sayest? For thou verily givest thanks 
well, but the other is not edified. I thank my 
God, I speak with tongues more than ye all; yet 
in the Church I had rather speak five words with 
my understanding, that by my voice I might 
teach others also, than ten thousand words in an 
unknown tongue.” Here, publicly praising “ with 
the understanding” is taken to be, so praising that 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 91 

a common man may understand; and publicly 
preaching “with the understanding” is taken to 
be, so to speak as “to teach others also.” To 
praise and to preach in public without these, is to 
act without understanding. The words, “He un- 
derstandeth not what thou sayest,” though “thou 
verily givest thanks well,” settle the whole mat¬ 
ter. They take it for granted—as, indeed, the 
apostle does all through—that the speaker clearly 
understands himself; but the fault is, that he uses 
speech which was never given for the sake of in¬ 
tercourse with God, but for that of intercourse 
with man, in a way that defeats its own object. 
Speech is man’s revelation of his own spirit to his 
fellow-man; and when nothing is revealed, it be¬ 
comes a mockery. Feelings and thoughts are the 
language which God listens to: man hearkens in 
the air, God in the soul within. To speak to him 
we need no sounds: sounds are for human ears, 
and useful only when the ear can recognize the 
meaning. The fact that some who could not pro¬ 
phesy, could yet speak with tongues, is apparent in 
several parts of Scripture, and is a singular proof 
at once of the generality and the diversity of gifts. 
The lower gift, that of tongues, was more generally 
diffused than the higher, that of prophecy. 


The miracle indicated not only the origin of 


92 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


the new doctrine, but also its sphere. It was a 
message from the Father of men to all men. Na¬ 
tional diversities, instead of being a barrier before 
which it stood still, were opportunities to display 
its universal adaptation. Each various tongue 
was made an additional witness that it had come 
for “ every people under heaven.” Our Lord’s 
last words, “the uttermost part of the earth,” 
had here a strange and multiplying echo. A force 
was set in motion, which claimed all humanity as 
its field: a voice was lifted up, which called upon 
every nation to join its audience. 

Again, this manifestation met and answered all 
doubts which might have arisen as to the power 
of our Lord to gift his servants with language and 
utterance needful for their coming contest with 
the whole world. He had told them that, when 
brought before rulers and kings for his name’s 
sake, it would be given to them what they should 
say: “ For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit 
of your Father which speaketh in you.” (Matt, 
x. 20.) He had evidently referred to such Divine 
aid in speech , when he told them that they should 
receive power after that the Holy Ghost was come 
upon them, and that they should be his witnesses f 
even “ to the uttermost part of the earth.” Moses 
had feared to plead before Pharaoh, from a dread 
that utterance equal to the gravity of the mission 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 93 


could not be given to him. Jeremiah had feared 
on a similar ground. 

Nothing is more natural than that one who feels 
himself charged with a sublime truth, on the proper 
delivery of which infinite interests depend, should 
distrust his ability to frame suitable language. It 
is very probable that such thoughts had troubled 
the disciples in the contemplation of the great 
work which lay before them. If so, what an an¬ 
swer did they receive in the miracle of tongues! 
He who enabled their lips to pour forth the testi¬ 
mony in words they had never spoken, and never 
heard, could surely give them every measure of 
propriety, of clearness, of copiousness, of power, 
whereof human speech was capable. All ques¬ 
tions as to how copious diction could be imparted 
to the unready, and force to the feeble; how the 
slow could be made impressive, and the tame elo¬ 
quent, were here answered. The old promise, “I 
will be with thy mouth ,” received an unlooked- 
for commentary. The effects which the Spirit of 
the Lord could produce upon the human tongue, 
were shown to be illimitable by any natural im¬ 
pediment. The ground of confidence as to their 
success in preaching was conspicuously changed 
from talent, learning, office, or credentials, to the 
working of the Holy Ghost. Their power ceased 
to be a question of natural ability, and became one 


94 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


of Divine gift. The measure of the former might 
he greater or less, without materially affecting the 
fruit of their work; hut this would exactly corre¬ 
spond with the degree of the latter. 

Andrew had heard the Baptist preach, had 
seen how his words ploughed up the rude feelings 
of the soldier, and at the same time commanded 
the subtle conscience of the scribe. He had 
heard the Lord himself, when every word struck 
the ear as a wonder. Probably he had always 
thought it impossible that such sword-edged sen¬ 
tences should ever come from his lips, or from 
those of “ his own brother Simon.” He might 
conceive that he should be able to repeat the sub¬ 
stance of the lessons which the Lord had taught 
them, and that, when he stood before counsellors 
and magistrates, he should be enabled to assign a 
reason for his hope. Perhaps he would think it 
possible that, when filled with that new Com¬ 
forter, who had been so often promised to them, 
he could address a multitude with feeling. But, 
as to words like fire, melting and burning the 
spirits of men—words like hammers, breaking in 
pieces the hearts of stone—words that should 
rush on the congregation with a force too over¬ 
whelming to be called eloquence—should win a 
conquest too rapid and too complete to be called 
persuasion—should make the speaker not only a 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 95 

prodigy, but a power—bis hearers not only an 
orator’s audience, but a Master’s disciples—as to 
such words as these, how was it possible that they 
should ever proceed from him, or Simon ? So 
might he naturally reason; but when he finds 
himself fluently telling a man from the shores of 
Cyrene the whole story of the birth, and death, 
and resurrection, and ascension, in a tongue 
which he had never heard before; when the Af¬ 
rican assures him that it was the tongue of his 
native town; then, had you asked him, “Is it 
now impossible that you or Simon should speak 
with a voice mightier than the voice of a prophet, 
or that the least of your company should be 
greater than the thunder-tongued Baptist?” he 
had answered, “ With God nothing is impossible.” 

“And it sat upon each of them. And they 
were all filled with the ®oly Ghost, and began to 
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them 
utterance.” The tongue of fire rested upon each 
disciple, and all spoke with a superhuman utter¬ 
ance. Not the Twelve only, the Lord’s chosen 
apostles: not the Seventy only, his commissioned 
evangelists ; but also the ordinary believers, and 
even the women. The baptism of the Spirit fell 
upon all, and spiritual gifts were imparted to all 
—not equally; for the expression, “As the Spirit 


96 


THE TONGUE OE FIRE. 


gave them utterance,” seems to indicate a diver¬ 
sity of gifts, which accords with other passages in 
the New Testament. It is not probable that each 
one could speak every language; for St. Paul 
says of himself, that he “ spake with tongues 
more than they all,” clearly implying a limit in 
that gift, and a different limit in different per¬ 
sons. And it is certain that all had not the gift 
of u prophesying” suited to address such congre¬ 
gations as that soon about to meet, or even pub¬ 
licly to teach in*ordinary assemblies. As in his 
later operations, so now, the blessed Spirit would 
doubtless show “ diversities of operations,” giv¬ 
ing to “ one the word of wisdom, to another the 
word of knowledge, to another prophecy,” etc. 
But the cloven tongues sat upon each of them, 
and, by the joint effect of spiritual life imparted 
and of spiritual gifts bestowed, all were instantly 
set upon spiritual services; all led to become ac¬ 
tive witnesses for Christ and for his cross. 

The fire did not fall on the Twelve to be by 
them communicated to the Seventy, and by them 
again to the ordinary flock. It came as directly 
on the head of the disciple whose name we never 
heard, as on that of the beloved and honored 
John. It did not confound John the Apostle in 
the promiscuous mass, or place^his office at the 
disposal of the multitude; but confirmed it, and 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 97 

fitted him by new gifts to adorn and make full 
proof of his ministry. But it did not, on the 
other hand, leave the ordinary believers as mere 
spectators to see the spiritual work of the Lord 
committed wholly to the selected ministry; their 
part being passively to receive spiritual influences 
and illumination from those who had direct access 
to Him with .whom is the supply of the Spirit. 

This original blessing meets beforehand the 
error, which was likely to spring up, from looking 
on the true religion in the light in which all false 
ones are ever regarded—as a mystery to be con¬ 
fined to an initiated few, on whose offices the 
multitude must depend for acceptance with the 
invisible Power. Here was a religion that did 
single out and lift up some above their fellows, 
investing them with a high and solemn ministry; 
but from their ministry it swept away all seeming 
priesthood. 

The usual idea of priesthood is that of a power 
standing between man and God, through which 
alone we may draw near, and find mercy at his 
hands. But so far from any such characteristic 
belonging to the ministry of the gospel, it is distin¬ 
guished as being an office, the special labor of 
which is to point each man direct to God, and to 
assure him that between him and the throne of 

9 


98 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


grace there is no power, visible or invisible, and 
no mediator but that One to whom alike apostle, 
evangelist, and the humblest penitent must look. 
True, all were not apostles, all were not evangel¬ 
ists, all were not prophets; but, in the only sense 
in which any were priests, all were priests. The 
one altar of the Cross, the one sacrifice of the 
Lamb, the one High-Priest within, the veil, were 
Halone to be named in any light of peace-making 
with God. To all, the privilege of offering up 
the sacrifices of praise and of prayer, of living 
bodies and of Worldly goods, was equally open. No 
man was made a depository or storehouse wherein 
spiritual favors should be laid up for the use of 
those who might purchase or implore them at his 
hands. He was most honored who could most suc¬ 
cessfully turn the trust of men away from all other 
advocates, and fix it upon the Son of God alone. 

“They all began to speak.” This shows that 
the testimony of Christ was not borne by the min¬ 
istry alone; that this chief work of the Church 
was not confined to official hands. The multitude 
of believers were not mere adherents, but living, 
speaking, burning agents in the great movements 
for the universal diffusion of God’s message. 
Many feel as if religion, on the part of the min¬ 
istry, was to be a matter of bold and public testi- 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 9G 

mony; but on that of ordinary Christians, a 
heart-secret between themselves and God. Let 
such sit down in sight of that first Christian 
scene: let them behold every countenance Ughted 
up with the common joy, and hear every tongue 
speak under the common impulse, and then ask 
Bartimeus, or Mary, if the private disciple has 
not just as much cause to be a witness that Jesus 
lives, and that Jesus saves, as either James or 
John ? Let them ask if it is like their religion 
that one lonely minister shall, on the Lord’s day, 
bear witness before a thousand Christians, who 
decorously hear his testimony as worthy of accept¬ 
ance by all, and then go away, and never repeat 
the strain in any human ear ? 

Looking on the universal movement of that 
Pentecostal day, who could think that the new 
religion was ever to come down to this ? that 
speaking of its joys, its hopes, its pardon, its 
mercy for the wide world, was to be considered a 
professional work, for set solemnities alone, and 
not to be a daily joy and heart’s-ease to ever-grow¬ 
ing multitudes of happy, simple men ? Cheer¬ 
less is the work of that Christian minister who, 
at set times, raises his testimony in the ears of a 
people, all of whom make a practice of hiding it 
in their hearts! Blessed in his office is he who 
knows that, while he in his own sphere proclaims 


100 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


the glad tidings, hundreds around him are ready, 
each one in his sphere, to make them their boast 
and their song! Spiritual office and spiritual 
gifts vary greatly in degree, honor, and authority, 
and he who has the less ought to reverence him 
who has the greater, remembering who it is that 
dispenses them; but the greater should never 
attempt to extinguish the less, and to reduce the 
exercise of spiritual gifts within the limits of the 
public and ordained ministry. To do so is to de¬ 
part from primitive Christianity. 


SECTION III.—MINISTERIAL EFFECTS. 

In immediate connection with the gift of 
tongues, was a gift less startling as a phenomenon, 
but more influential as an instrument for the re¬ 
covery of mankind. Peter was soon called upon 
publicly to deliver the Lord’s great message. 
Then, undoubtedly, he spoke not in any foreign 
tongue, but in his native dialect. He had often 
spoken before, yet nothing remarkable is recorded 
of his preaching, or its effects. He is now the 
same man, with the same natural intellect, and 
the same natural powers of speech; and yet a new 



EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 101 


utterance is given to him, the effects of which are 
instantly apparent. 

Never was such an audience assembled as that 
before which this poor fisherman appeared: Jews, 
with all the prejudices of their race—inhabitants 
of Jerusalem, with the recollection of the part 
they had recently taken in the crucifixion of Jesus 
of Nazareth, met in the city of their solemnities, 
jealous for the honor of their temple and law: 
men of different nations, rapidly and earnestly 
speaking in their different tongues: one in He¬ 
brew, mocking and saying, “ These men are full 
of new wine;” another inquiring in Latin; another 
disputing in Greek; another wondering in Arabic; 
and an endless Babel beside, expressing every va¬ 
riety of surprise, doubt, and curiosity. Amid such 
a scene the fisherman stands up: his voice strikes 
across the hum which prevails all down the street. 
He has no tongue of silver; for they say, “He is 
an unlearned and ignorant man.” The rudeness 
of his Galilean speech still remains with him; yet, 
though “unlearned and ignorant” in their sense— 
as to polite learning—in a higher sense he was a 
scribe well instructed. As respected the word of 
God, he had been for three years under the con¬ 
stant tuition of the prophet of Nazareth, hearing 
from his lips instruction in the law, in the pro- 
9 * 


102 THE TONGUE 01" EIRE. 

phets, and in all the “deep things of Gro^.” On 
whatever other points, therefore, the learned of 
Jerusalem might have found Peter at fault, in the 
sacred writings he was more thoroughly furnished 
than they; for though Christ took his apostles 
from among the poor, he left us no example for 
those who have not well learned the Bible, to at¬ 
tempt to teach it. 

Yet Peter had no tongue of silver, no tongue 
of honey, no soothing, flattering speech, to allay 
the prejudices and to captivate the passions of the 
multitude. Nor had he a tongue of thunder: no 
outbursts of native eloquence distinguished his 
discourse. Indeed, some, if they had heard that 
discourse from ordinary lips, would not have hesi- 
tated to pronounce it dry—some of a class, too 
numerous, who do not like preachers who put 
them to the trouble of thinking, but enjoy only 
those who regale their fancy, or move their feel¬ 
ings, without requiring any labor of thought. 
Peter’s sermon is no more than quoting passages 
from the word of God, and reasoning upon them; 
yet, as in this strain he proceeds, the tongue of 
fire by degrees burns its way to the feelings of the 
multitude. The murmur gradually subsides: the 
mob becomes a congregation: the voice of the fish¬ 
erman sweeps from end to end of that multitude, 
unbroken by a single sound; and, as the words 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 103 

rush on, they act like a stream of fire. Now, one 
coating of prejudice which covered the feelings is 
burned, and starts aside: now, another and an¬ 
other : now, the fire touches the inmost covering 
of prejudice, which lay close upon the heart, and 
it too starts aside. Now, it touches the quick, 
and burns the very soul of the man! Presently, 
you might think that in that throng there was but 
one mind, that of the preacher, which had multi¬ 
plied itself, had possessed itself of thousands of 
hearts and thousands of frames, and was pouring 
its own thoughts through them all. At length, 
shame, and tears, and sobs overspread that whole 
assembly. Here, a head bows: there, starts a 
groan: yonder, rises a deep sigh: here, tears are 
falling; and some stern old Jew, who will neither 
bow nor weep, trembles with the effort to keep 
himself still. At length, from the depth of the 
crowd, the voice of the preacher is crossed by a 
cry, as if one was 11 mourning for his only son;” 
and it is answered by a cry, as if one was in u bit¬ 
terness for his first-born.” At this cry the whole 
multitude is carried away; and, forgetful of every 
thing but the overwhelming feeling of the moment, 
they exclaim, “Men and brethren, what must we 
do?” 

No part of the proceedings of the day strikes us 
with a deeper or more lasting impression than the 


104 


THE TONGUE OE EIRE. 


amazing change in Peter which is here manifest. 
We are continually prone to consider the power 
of a minister as a natural power, simply intellect¬ 
ual. Here was a man who, in all probability, 
had passed the period of life when eloquence is 
most forcible, without having distinguished him¬ 
self by any such power. He comes forward with 
a most unwelcome message, to address an unfavor¬ 
able audience, himself unskilled in the arts of ora¬ 
tory; and yet, such is the power of utterance given 
to him, that he produces an effect, the like of 
which had never been known before in the history 
of mankind. Never has it been recorded in any 
other instance, that three thousand men were in 
an hour persuaded by one of their own nation, of 
obscure origin and uninfluential position, to forego 
the prejudices of their youth, the favor of their 
people, and the religion of their fathers. “I will 
be with thy mouth” is more strikingly fulfilled 
here, in those extraordinary effects of the speak¬ 
ing of an ordinary man, than in any other form 
in which the power of God could be displayed, 
through the instrumentality of a human tongue. 
There is no part of the whole series of events 
which has a more direct bearing upon the perma¬ 
nent work of the Christian Church. 

This is the first example of prophesying in the 
New Testament sense; not the limited sense of 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 105 

foretelling, but the more comprehensive sense of 
delivering a message from God, under the impulse 
of the Spirit of God, and by his aid. In this the 
speaker has the double advantage of ascertained 
truth to declare—truth which his own understand¬ 
ing has received, which he can enforce by citing the 
word of God—and of aid direct from the Spirit in 
uttering it. This gift is conspicuously placed by 
St. Paul above that of tongues: “ Greater is he that 
prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues.” 
The gift of tongues was “ for a sign to them that 
believe not;” and even to them only under cer¬ 
tain circumstances, when they were addressed in a 
tongue which they understood, and that by one of 
whom they had proof, or what amounted to strong 
probability, that he had not learned it in a natural 
mode. For the union of these two requisites no¬ 
thing was so favorable as the meeting of a num¬ 
ber of foreigners in one city, and hearing natives 
of the country speak all their different languages. 
A foreigner appearing in a city, and professing to 
speak its language by miracle, would lie under the 
suspicion of having learned it before he came; and 
persons speaking foreign tongues in the presence 
of their own unlearned countrymen would seem 
to utter gibberish. This Paul puts strongly to 
the Corinthians: “If the whole Church be come 
together into one place, and all speak with tongues, 


106 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


and there come in those that are unlearned , or 
unbelievers , will they not say that ye are mad?” 

If a number of persons in Corinth had a gift 
in Hebrew, or in Latin, and their fellow-towns¬ 
men, who knew only Greek, came and heard a 
rush of unmeaning sounds, and were told that it 
was a miracle, it might be, but it was not a mira¬ 
cle to them. If they saw an African peasant 
speaking fluently in Greek, then, indeed, they 
would be startled; and if once assured by any 
means that he had not learned it, they would 
recognize a miracle. 

But the effect of persons resident in a place 
using the gift of tongues could only be to satisfy 
the learned of a miracle. For the unlearned it 
would be simply bewildering. Suppose that, in 
the city of Oxford, the stonemasons, joiners, and 
shoemakers heard a few of their own number ut¬ 
tering something in Latin, they would only be 
impressed with a belief that they had gone mad, 
or were amusing themselves with gibberish. But 
did the learned men of the University find these 
groups discoursing on the doctrines of the gospel 
in the language of ancient Home, which it had 
been the study and the labor of their lives to ac¬ 
quire perfectly, they would be overwhelmed with 
a sense of the prodigy. All through the four¬ 
teenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corin- 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 107 

thians, St. Paul admits that upon the learned the 
gift of tongues would make an impression; hut 
that the unlearned, if believers, would be unedi¬ 
fied, and, if unbelievers, would be led to mock. 

To the higher gift of prophecy he assigns two 
offices which that of tongues could never fulfil. 
One is the edifying of believers; and on this 
score he much urges the Corinthians to seek for 
that gift. The other is its effect upon the un¬ 
learned unbeliever. “ If all prophesy, and there 
come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, 
he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; and 
thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; 
and so falling down on his face, he will worship 
God, and report that God is in you of a truth.” 
Here is a man who knows no language but one, 
and who has no faith in the Divine mission of the 
Christians; yet he enters an assembly where men 
are speaking in his own tongue: that tongue, as 
to its words, is familiar to him from his child¬ 
hood; but its words now convey new ideas, 
and those ideas are accompanied by a strange 
power which pierces, lays open, and searches his 
heart. He seems as if God had found him out, 
and told another man all about him, his hidden 
sins, his bosom pollutions, and covered deeds 
which had been even forgotten, but which now 
are brought strangely to his view again. An 


108 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


unaccountable impression of God’s presence, of a 
message, a warning, a call from God, sinks down 
into his soul. He feels, as he never felt before, 
“ God is in this placeand, falling down upon 
his face, forgetful of appearances, and heedless 
of consequences, perilling his temporal peace, and 
exposing himself to every manner of remark, he 
worships, in bitterness of penitence, an offended 
but a forgiving God, and goes forth to tell those 
with whom he comes in contact, that the people 
whose words had searched his heart and made 
manifest its secrets must have God in the midst 
of them. This was the gift of prophecy, as 
the term is generally employed in the New Tes¬ 
tament. It differs from prophecy in the ordinary 
sense in tms, that the gift conveys no “ revela¬ 
tion,” either as to truth hitherto unrevealed, or 
as to future events. It differs from the gift of 
tongues in this, that the intellect and organs act 
according to natural laws, though under a super¬ 
natural influence. It is that gift through wdiich 
the whole of man’s nature works in cooperation 
with the Holy Spirit, the intellect illuminated 
with Divine light, the moral powers quickened 
by Divine feeling, and the physical organs speak¬ 
ing with Divine power. This is placed by the 
apostle as the highest gift — the one wherein 
man stands closest in communion with God as 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 109 

his intelligent instrument for his most hallowed 
work—the work of calling prodigal sons back to 
his arms, and of training feeble children into 
strength and steadfastness. This gift was that 
which had the most direct utility, was capable of 
the most universal application, and was destined 
to be permanent; equally needful for the con¬ 
verting of sinners and the edifying of the Church ; 
and therefore to be ever kept in view by the 
Church as a special subject of prayer; for, let 
this cease, and Christianity dwindles into a natu¬ 
ral agency for social improvement, blessed with 
superhuman doctrines, but destitute of a super¬ 
human power. 

If the preaching of the gospel is to exercise a 
great power over mankind, it must be either by 
enlisting extraordinary men, or by the endowing 
of ordinary men with extraordinary power. It 
does often happen that men whose eloquence 
would affect and sway, whatever might have been 
their theme, give all their talents to the gospel; 
yet in such cases it ever proves that the religious 
impression produced upon mankind is never regu¬ 
lated by the brilliancy or natural force of the elo¬ 
quence, but always by the extent to which the 
preacher is imbued with that indescribable some¬ 
thing commonly called the “ unction,” or the 
10 


110 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


operation and power of the Spirit. On the other 
hand, it often happens that a man in whose natu¬ 
ral gifts nothing extraordinary can be discovered, 
produces moral effects which, for depth at the 
moment, and for permanency, are totally dispro- 
portioned to his natural powers In hearing such 
a man, and afterward discovering the effects of 
his preaching, people often ask, u What is there^ 

in Mr.- to account for such effects? We 

hear many who are abler, profounder, better the¬ 
ologians, more eloquent, more persuasive; yet 
this man’s preaching brings people to repentance 
and to God.” They cannot discover the source 
of his power; and it is precisely this fact which 
intimates that it is spiritual. 

On the day of Pentecost, Christianity faced the 
world, a new religion, and a poor one, without a 
history, without a priesthood, without a college, 
without a people, and without a patron. She had 
only her two sacraments and her tongue of fire. 
The latter was her sole instrument of aggression. 
All that was ancient and venerable rose up be¬ 
fore her in solid opposition. No passions of the 
mob, no theories of the learned, no interests of 
the politic, favored her; nor did she flatter or 
conciliate any one of them. With her tongue of 
fire she assailed every existing system, and every 
evil habit; and by that tongue of fire she burned 



EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. Ill 

her way through innumerable forms of opposi¬ 
tion. In asking what was her power, we can find 
no other answer than this one, “ The tongue of 
fire.” 

With regard to one of her deacons, Stephen, it 
is said that his enemies could not resist the wis¬ 
dom and the power with which he spoke. It was 
not every disciple who had the gift of prophecy, 
like him, to pour out in clear and copious utter¬ 
ance the testimony which could command the at¬ 
tention of national councils, and confound the 
sophisms of a college of disputers; but, each in 
his own sphere and style, the Christians of that 
happy day were distinguished among their fellow- 
men by a strange power declaring the deep things 
of God. Many of them would go, like Andrew, 
who went first to “ his own brother Simon,” and 
tell their kinsmen of Jesus, and forgiveness, and 
the resurrection of the dead, and the world to 
come, in strains which, by some unaccountable 
power, fixed the attention and entered the heart. 
Others of them would go, as did the brothers of 
Nathanael, telling the neighbors and friends whom 
they met the great things of redemption, so that 
prejudices, even the strongest, were often melted 
in the fire of their speech. True, they did not 
always succeed, but how marvellous their success 
was, notwithstanding! Had Christians of the 


112 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


present day, in addressing those whose conscience, 
creed, early impressions, all favor every word they 
say, but that strange influence which bore down 
the most rooted aversion, how rapid and how 
glorious would be the spread of living religion in 
the land! 

This power of utterance is ordinarily referred 
to throughout the New Testament as at once the 
gift of God and the great weapon of the Church. 
We have already noticed how, when opposition 
first threatened them, they went in earnest prayer 
to God, and asked for power, that they might 
speak his word with boldness. So when any one 
of them, in critical circumstances, is enabled 
specially to declare and magnify the truth, we are 
told that he does so, “ being filled with the Holy 
Ghost )” and Paul, who, though he was not pre¬ 
sent on the day of Pentecost, received the tongue 
of fire in a very remarkable degree, did not hold 
that gift as being constitutional, like natural 
talents and aptitude of speech. Among the sub¬ 
jects with regard to which he entreats the 
prayers of his Christian brethren, he specially 
mentions u utterance.” u Praying always with 
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and 
watching thereunto with all perseverance and sup¬ 
plication for all saints; and for me, that utterance 
may he given unto me, that I may open my mouth 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 113 

boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.” 
Again and again have we brought before us the 
fact that this utterance is the direct gift of God; 
nor are we without traces of the same fact in 
earlier times than those of Christianity. In the 
cases of Mary and Elizabeth, we hear them, under 
the influence of the Divine Spirit, uttering great 
and glorious things. In the cases of Jeremiah 
and Isaiah, we find the Lord making himself 
their strength in regard to the message wherewith 
he charged them; and in the case of Moses, the 
gift of speech was especially promised to him; 
but his faith failed, and consequently another had 
to exercise that power which, had he believed, he 
himself would have fully possessed. 

In all the history of the primitive Christians, 
we find traces of the effect produced upon men 
by the testimony they bore, even when bearing it 
under the constraint of public persecution, and 
in the face of impending danger. Without a 
press, without a literature, without any of our 
modern means of influencing masses of men: cast 
solely on the one instrument of the tongue, and 
in that destitute of the wisdom of the Greek and 
of the skill of the scribe: seldom favored with 
the opportunity of repeatedly addressing numer¬ 
ous assemblies of the same individuals : destitute 
10 * 


114 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE 


of prestige, contemptible in numbers, rustic in 
manners, and thwarted by circumstances : strong 
only in the one peculiar attribute—the unseen 
fire which filled them—on they went, and on, 
turning the hearts of their enemies, and advan¬ 
cing the name of the Lord. 

Religion has never, in any period, sustained 
itself except by the instrumentality of the tongue 
of fire. Only where some men, more or less im¬ 
bued with this primitive power, have spoken the 
words of the Lord, not with “ the words which 
man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy 
Ghost teacheth,” have sinners been converted, 
and saints prompted to a saintlier life. In many 
periods of the history of the Church, as this gift 
has waned, every natural advantage has come to 
replace it: more learning, more system, more 
calmness, more profoundness of reflection—every 
thing, in fact, which, according to the ordinary 
rules of human thought, would insure to the 
Christian Church a greater command over the 
intellect of mankind, and would give her argu¬ 
ments in favor of a holy life a more potent efficacy. 
Yet it has ever proved that the gain of all this, 
when accompanied with an abatement of the 
“fire,” has left the Church less efficient; and her 
elaborate and weighty lessons have transformed 
few into saints, though her simple tongue of fire 


25 F SOTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 115 

had continually reared up its monuments of won¬ 
der. This has been not less the case in modern 
times than in ancient. 

If the amazing revival which characterized the 
last century be viewed merely as a natural pro¬ 
gress of mental influence, no analysis can find ele¬ 
ments of power greater than have often existed 
in a corrupting and falling Church, or than are 
found at many periods when no blessed effects are 
produced. Men equally learned, eloquent, ortho¬ 
dox, instructive, may be found in many ages of 
Christianity. It is utterly impossible to assign a 
natural reason why Whitefield should have been 
the means of converting so many more sinners 
than other men. Without one trace of logic, 
philosophy, or any thing worthy to be called sys¬ 
tematic theology, his sermons, viewed intellect¬ 
ually, take an humble place among humble efforts. 
Turning again to his friend, Wesley, we find 
calmness, clearness, logic, theology, discussion, 
definition, point, appeal, but none of that prodi¬ 
gious and unaccountable power which the human 
intellect would naturally connect with movements 
so amazing as those which took place under his 
word. Neither the logic of the one, nor the 
declamation of the other, furnishes us with the 
secret of his success. There is enough to account 
for men being affected, excited, or convinced; 


116 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


but that does not account for their living holy 
lives ever after. Thousands of pulpit orators 
have swayed their audience, as a wind sways 
standing corn; but, in the result, those who were 
most affected differed nothing from their former 
selves. An effect of eloquence is sufficient to 
account for a vast amount of feeling at the 
moment; but to trace to this a moral power, by 
which a man, for his life long, overcomes his 
besetting sins, and adorns his name with Chris¬ 
tian virtues, is to make sport of human nature. 

Why should these men have done what many 
equally learned and able, as divines and orators, 
never did ? There must have been an element of 
power in them which criticism cannot discover. 
What was that power ? It must be judged of by 
its sphere and its effects. Where did it act ? and 
what did it produce ? Every power has its own 
sphere. The strongest arm will never convince 
the understanding, the most forcible reasoning will 
never lift a weight, the brightest sunbeam will 
never pierce a plate of iron, nor the most powerful 
magnet move a pane of glass. The soul of man 
has separate regions; and that which merely con¬ 
vinces the intellect may leave the emotions un¬ 
touched ; that which merely operates on the 
emotions may leave the understanding unsatisfied, 
and that which affects both may yet leave the 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE 117 

moral powers uninspired. The crowning power 
of the messenger of God is power over the moral 
man : power which, whether it approaches the 
soul through the avenue of the intellect or of the 
affections, does reach into the soul. The sphere 
of true Christian power is the heart—the moral 
man; and the result of its action is not to be 
surely distinguished from that of mere eloquence 
by instantaneous emotion, but by subsequent- 
moral fruit. Power which cleanses the heart, and 
produces holy living, is the power of the Holy 
Ghost. It may be through the logic of Wesley, 
the declamation of Whitefield, or the simple com¬ 
mon sense of a plain servant-woman or laboring- 
man; but whenever this power is in action, it 
strikes deeper into human nature than any mere 
reasoning or pathos. Possibly it does not so soon 
bring a tear to the eye, or throw the judgment 
into a posture of acquiescence; but it raises in the 
breast thoughts of God, eternity, sin, death, hea¬ 
ven, and hell: raises them, not as mere ideas, 
opinions, or articles of faith, but as the images 
and echoes of real things. 

We may find in many parts of the country, 
where much has been done to dispel darkness and 
diffuse true religion, that some of the first tri¬ 
umphs of grace were entirely due to the wonder¬ 
ful effects produced by the private and fireside 


118 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


talking of some humble Christians, who had them¬ 
selves gone to the throne of grace, and waited 
there until they had received the baptism of fire. 

In proportion as the power of this one instru¬ 
ment is overlooked, and other means are trusted 
in to supply its place, does the true force of Chris¬ 
tian agency decline ; and it may without hesita¬ 
tion be said, that when men holding the Chris¬ 
tian ministry habitually and constantly manifest 
their distrust in the power of the Holy Ghost to 
give them utterance, they publicly abjure the true 
theory of Christian preaching. It is, according 
to the authority of its Author, delivering a mes¬ 
sage from God—a message through man, it is 
true; but delivered not with the excellency of 
man’s speech, not under the guidance of man’s 
natural wisdom: a message, the effect of which 
does not rest upon the artistic arrangement, 
choice, and order of words, but upon the extent 
to which its utterance is pervaded by the Holy 
Ghost. 


SECTION IV.—EFFECTS UPON THE WORLD. 

When the promise of the Spirit was given, 
our Lord expressly intimated that his influence 
should not be confined to the Church, but that 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 119 

he should tc convince the world of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment.” It was only 
thus that the Church could be extended beyond 
the number of tbe original disciples. Through 
the gifts bestowed upon Peter, the Spirit moved 
to the fulfilment of his great office in the hearts 
of worldly men. Both the miraculous and the 
ministerial gifts were made subservient to this 
end. The former was a wonder which raised 
curiosity and then amazement, which brought 
together a multitude, first excited, finally awed. 
This, however, was all it did. Had the events 
of the day ended with the pure effect of the mira¬ 
cle, perhaps no Jew would have become a Chris¬ 
tian, and certainly no sinner would have become 
a saint. The miracle prepared an audience for 
the preacher; but it did not convert, and did not 
even instruct them: no one there knew the doc¬ 
trine of the incarnation and its glorious concomi¬ 
tants, when Peter stood up to preach. All that 
the gift of tongues did was to produce an im¬ 
pression that these men were messengers of God. 
And even this it did not produce on all; for some 
mocked—probably people of the place, on whom 
the effect of the foreign tongues was lost. 

The entire advantage which Peter, as a preacher 
of Christianity, derived from the evidences of his 
religion, when he stood up on the day of Pente- 


120 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


cost, amounted to this: a large number of men 
were congregated in a state of much agitation, 
fresh from the impression of a prodigy before un¬ 
imagined, and with a strong suspicion that the 
preacher and his coadjutors were probably teach¬ 
ers from God. His advantage, as compared with 
a modern preacher, lay in the freshness of this 
feeling—in the opened state of the mind just 
after an indisputable marvel had forced a pas¬ 
sage through all its prejudices. His disadvantages 
lay in the comparative ignorance of his hearers, 
in their disbelief of most of the points wherewith 
he wished to impress them, in the amount of re¬ 
ligious and national prejudice which fortified this 
belief, in the array of temporal interests which 
stood up against his appeal, in the discredit at¬ 
tached to his position, the obscurity of his per¬ 
son, and the rustic stamp of his speech. 

Putting his single advantage on the one side, 
and his many disadvantages on the other, we 
naturally raise the question, Had he more ad¬ 
vantage from the miracle of tongues than the 
modern preacher has from the Christian evidences 
generally ? It would be hard to exaggerate the 
value of that freshness of impression under which 
he found his hearers; yet, taking the whole 
course of human nature, the miracle, whether in 
the hand of Moses, the prophets, or the Lord 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 121 


himself, however mighty as an instrument of im¬ 
pression, as a credential of a Divine mission, 
never proved an instrument of moral regenera¬ 
tion to the people. 

From the pentecostal and other miracles, from 
the whole array of the Christian evidences, the 
modern preacher derives the advantage of an au¬ 
dience who believe that every doctrine he pro¬ 
pounds is truly the word of God. "Within theii 
conscience he has far more on his side than Peter 
had in the consciences of his auditory. Peter 
had the advantage of a fresh and excited feel¬ 
ing : the modern preacher has that of standing 
closer home upon the conscience. The latter 
often thinks how much might be effected had he 
only some such supernatural sign as arrested the 
multitude on the day of Pentecost: what would 
Peter have thought of his prospects, if, instead 
of such an audience as he had, one had been 
offered to him where all believed that his Master 
was the Son of God, and that there was “no 
other name given under heaven among men where¬ 
by we must be saved V 1 

The effect of the miracle was a general im¬ 
pression in favor of the Divine origin of the mes¬ 
sage. At this point the ministerial gift came 
into operation. By an ability clearly to state 
11 


122 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


and argue the truth, Peter was enabled to put 
the understanding of his hearers into possession 
of the great revelation, that God had sent his Son 
to redeem them. By a sacred pathos, he was en¬ 
abled to engage their sympathies in favor of each 
truth, as he presented it. Clear and feeling ut¬ 
terance of the gospel was his ministerial gift : 
understanding and impression were its effects. 

The united effect of the miraculous and min¬ 
isterial gift amounted to favorable attention, 
understanding of the truth, and inclination to 
embrace it. But had no power beyond the 
testimony of the miracle and the appeal of the 
sermon touched the souls of the auditors, what 
single individual would have embraced truth so 
dangerous to his respectability and comfort, how¬ 
ever convinced that it was of heavenly origin, and 
fraught with eternal advantages? The inclina¬ 
tion toward such a step raised by Peter’s warmth, 
would have been oounteracted by many and po¬ 
tent inclinations of interest and of nature. No¬ 
thing is more common than for the human mind 
to turn its back upon a truth, firmly believed to 
be from God, deeply felt to carry eternal hopes, 
but demanding the sacrifice of present gratifications, 
or of the friendship of the world. Mere conviction 
never carries a point of practical moral conduct. 

Deeper than the judgment, deeper than the 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 123 


feelings, lies the seat of human character, in that 
which is the mystery of all beings and all things; 
in what we call their “ nature,” without knowing 
where it lies, what it is, or how it wields its 
power. All we know is, that it does exert a 
power over external circumstances, bending them 
all in its own direction, or breaking its instruments 
against what it cannot bend. The nature of an 
acorn turns dew, air, soils, and sunbeams to oak; 
and though circumstances may destroy its power, 
they cannot divert it while it survives. It defies 
man, beast, earth, and sky, to make it produce 
elm. Cultivation may effect its quality, and train¬ 
ing its form; but whether it shall produce oak, 
ash, or elm, is a matter into which no force from 
without can enter; a matter not of circumstances, 
but purely of nature. To turn nature belongs to 
the Power which originally fixed nature. 

In man, feelings and intellect are related to 
nature, as in a plant tissues and juices: they 
derive their character from nature, and manifest 
its bent; but are not nature, though the means 
by which it acts on the external world, and is 
reacted upon by it. Nature does not decide the 
comparative excellence of character in the differ¬ 
ent members of the same species: one oak may 
be much stronger than another; one rose much 
sweeter; one man much wiser, or more generous 


124 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


The nature of man is essentially moral; and when 
intellect shoots up to eminence, it depends on the 
moral nature whether it is a blessing or a cursa 
to the species, a joy or a trouble to the individual. 
According to the moral nature are the intellectual 
powers directed; and in man often wastefully, 
often hurtfully—as to the great majority, in ways 
far below their capability. J ust as in all other 
objects, so in man, his nature eludes our analysis, 
lies out of sight, and defies our direct influence. 
We approach it through the intellect or the feel¬ 
ings ; but always with uncertainty, never know¬ 
ing what unseen power may counterwork our 
most careful endeavors. 

It is the nature of fallen man to prefer present 
pleasure to the prospect of eternal happiness; the 
favor of the world to the favor of the Almighty; 
to love himself, and forget his Creator. In adults 
this nature is fortified by its own developments; 
by habits and connections which all tend in its 
own direction. When a man’s nature in boyhood 
produced fruits of vice and trouble; when his ad¬ 
vancing years have steadily answered the impulse 
of the same nature, and his present associations 
are all based upon an alienation from heavenly 
ties; to bring him into immediate and permanent 
conformity to a Divine ideal of life, requires the 
ultimate Power of the universe, the power which 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 1L5 

rules nature, and through nature circumstances. 
Set before all the wise and good of the world one 
man of thirty years, or upward, whose life has been 
wicked or worldly; and tell them by a word, a 
warning, or an appeal, infallibly to change him 
then and there to a pure man, or to a pious man; 
and they will each be ready to exclaim, “Am I 
God, that I should do this V 1 

To say that man is the creature of circumstances 
is as much as to say that he is destitute of a na¬ 
ture; for, where a nature is, there is a power; a 
power of which circumstances are often the mere 
effect, but are never the masters. Let all the cir¬ 
cumstances under heaven conspire against the 
force of nature, as embodied in a seed of thorn, 
and they can never defeat it: all the gardeners, 
manures, heats, and waterings possible, would fail 
to make it produce fir. Heap upon it every ad¬ 
vantage which art and creation can give, and it 
will steadily turn all to thorn, hopelessly incapable 
of rising above its nature. 

Change your treatment, and endeavor to debase 
it, and the same superiority of nature to circum¬ 
stances continues to manifest itself. You may 
starve it to death, you may stunt or blight it, but 
by no adversity will it degenerate to brier; thorn in 
spite of allurements upward, thorn in spite of re- 
11 * 


126 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 

pulses downward: as it can never rise above, so it 
can never sink below its nature. Circumstances 
are the creatures of natures, not natures of cir¬ 
cumstances. 

Human nature is said by many to be good: if 
so, where have social evils come from? For hu¬ 
man nature is the only moral nature in that cor¬ 
rupting thing called “society.” Every evil ex¬ 
ample set before the child of to-day is the fruit of 
human nature. It has been planted on every pos¬ 
sible field—among the snows that never melt; in 
temperate regions, and under the line; in crowded 
cities, in lonely forests; in ancient seats of civili¬ 
zation, in new colonies; and in all these fields it 
has, without once failing, brought forth a crop of 
sins and troubles. This is absolute and inexpug¬ 
nable proof that human nature, in the aggregate, 
is a seed which produces sins and troubles. 

But a proof lies nearer the breast of each man. 
When you meant to do a wrong, and had made 
up your mind upon it, did any instinct within you 
tell you that you were unable, and must seek su¬ 
pernatural help to carry out your intention ? Never. 
You felt that to go forward was not only easy, but 
almost irresistible; was, in fact, yielding to nature. 

When you had made up your mind to overcome 
wrong inclinations, and to do right, and only right, 
did not an instinct as unfailing as that whereby 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 127 

an infant searches for the breast of a mother, teach 
you to seek help, inward help, help against your¬ 
self? A decision to do wrong finds you strong in 
your own strength: a decision to conquer wrong, 
and do right, sends you to your knees, or makes 
you cry, “ God help me 1” If that be so, you need 
consult no man’s books as to what side your na¬ 
ture is inclined to. 

Man is the only being coming within our know¬ 
ledge who has a nature that is plainly unnatural. 
This language is not paradoxical for the sake of 
paradox, but for the sake of strictly describing a 
mournful fact. Is a nature natural which can be 
changed without destroying the identity? That 
of man can be changed, and not only leave his 
identity perfect, but restore the course of a higher 
and evidently an older nature than the one which 
had previously reigned. Is a nature natural 
which urges toward courses which blight and 
ruin ? Human nature when least affected by cul¬ 
ture, in the loneliest and loveliest islands of un¬ 
frequented seas, urges to courses of headlong ruin 
and destruction. In the highest seats of civiliza¬ 
tion, it urges men to neglect the God of all, though 
they believe that to him they are indebted for be¬ 
ing, reason, and joy, and on him are dependent 
for their continuance: urges them to neglect ob¬ 
jects which they believe to be truly noble and of 


128 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


eternal utility, for pleasures which they cannot 
help despising, and for gains which they know 
are neither honorable nor lasting. In proof of 
this more than enough is said by the simple words, 
London, Paris, Home. Yet, while their nature is 
thus overriding their true dignity, true happiness, 
and true interest, a voice within, as if of a friend 
who has survived from better days, is ever pro¬ 
testing against this monstrous condition of things, 
and averring that this nature is not nature. 

There is not a beast of the field but may trust 
his nature and follow it, certain that it will lead 
him to the best of which he is capable. But as 
for us, our only invincible enemy is our nature: 
were it sound, we could hold circumstances as 
lightly as Samson’s withs; but it is evermore be¬ 
traying us. Often, when we honestly meant to 
be good and noble, our miserable nature, at the 
first favorable juncture of circumstances, betrayed 
us again, and we found ourselves falling by our 
own hands, and bitterly felt that we were our own 
enemies. Heal us at the heart, and then let the 
world come on! we are ready for the conflict. Make 
us sound within, and we will stand in the evil day. 
We can defy circumstances, and resist the devil, 
if only our own breast become not a hold of trai¬ 
tors ) if inclinations, silent, subtle, and strong as na¬ 
ture, do not arise to beguile us into captivity to evil. 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 129 

You tell us to withstand these inclinations; not 
to yield to our impulses, but to subject them to 
reason; that is, not to follow nature, which is in¬ 
ward and impulsive, but to be guided by external 
indexes which Observation notes, Reason inter¬ 
prets, and Will may apply to the control of na¬ 
ture. That, in fact, is saying, “Do not live by 
your nature, but resist your nature.” What a 
world of appalling truth comes in with that one 
admonition! My nature not a nature to live by! 
Self-regard putting me on the watch against na¬ 
ture ! A nature, and that the highest nature in 
this terrestrial system, self-injurious! This is not 
thy handiwork, O Eternal Parent, Author of 
order, beauty, and love; Creator of natures, each 
of which is in unison with itself, and in harmony 
with all thy other creatures! What has happened 
since man first left thy hand? 

It was strange to see three thousand men, after 
one hearing of a new and untried religion, accept 
it as their faith, and publicly enroll themselves as 
its disciples. It was especially strange, since the 
men at whose hands they, with docility, took the 
sacramental pledge of their conversion, were men 
without repute, whom they had themselves previ¬ 
ously despised. But it is not till after some weeks 
have elapsed that the highest wonder of this phe¬ 
nomenon breaks upon us. 


130 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


Human nature is liable to unaccountable illu¬ 
sions, and multitudes to ungovernable impulses. 
It may be that in a week or two we shall find 
those thousands of a thousand different views, as 
to what they had heard from Peter on the day of 
Pentecost, and as to the pardon and grace which 
he had professed to declare to them. But, as day 
by day we watch that throng, moral marvels come 
continually into view. What was so rare in 
human nature is now ordinary—a holy man. 
Persons who were as commonplace in character 
as can be conceived, now live before us, saints. 
The vile have become noble, the churl self-deny¬ 
ing, the bitter gentle, the sensual wonderfully 
pure. A community drawn from Jews of the 
ordinary standard, from persons of every variety 
of character and of sinfulness, is a community so 
pure, so far beyond what human eyes ever have 
seen before, that it seems as a commencement of 
heaven upon earth. Raised suddenly into saint- 
ship, they steadily maintain their moral elevation : 
first astonishing and captivating those who look 
on, and then withstanding all the opposition which 
prejudice and power can bring to crush them. 

Bay after day, month after month, year after 
year, this new and glorious life goes on. These 
men, lifted up from the ordinary level of sinners, 
continue “ steadfast in the apostles’ fellowship, 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 131 

and in breaking of bread and prayers/* 11 filled 
with the Holy Ghost,** rich in faith, overflowing 
with inward consolation : not seeing their glorified 
Redeemer with the eye, but more than seeing 
with the heart—feeling, embracing him, they 
“ rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory/* 
Their close prospect is immortality: their citizen¬ 
ship is in heaven : their wealth lies where change 
can never reduce it, nor moth corrupt, nor thief 
steal. Happy upon earth, and inheritors of 
heaven, it is naught to them that all mankind 
frown upon them : they know that they “ are of 
God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.** 
Their saintliness spreads its fame to the ends of 
the earth—a fame that has never died until our 
day; and even upon our homes and our hearts are 
now descending the mild and holy influences of 
the first community called into existence by the 
tongue of fire. 

Three thousand men permanently raised from 
death in sin to a life of holiness! Three thou¬ 
sand sinners converted into saints ! Three thou¬ 
sand new-made saints enabled day by day to walk 
in the fear of God, and in the comfort of the Holy 
Ghost! Three thousand of our brethren, weak, 
sinful by nature, open to the temptings of Satan 
even as we are, maintaining a life in the body 


132 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


which almost surpasses belief, so is it marked 
with goodness and with purity ! 

This, of all the spectacles of Pentecost, is the 
one that speaks in deepest tones to the heart. On 
those three thousand we gaze, and our souls break 
out with adoration. Glory, honor, salvation !—for 
now the word u salvation” may be boldly uttered 
by human lips—salvation is come, is come to the 
race of Adam! Here we see it, not in word, not 
in promise, but in practical demonstration: in 
human beings redeemed: in our nature recovered 
from sin, and that not in a solitary convert, not in 
one ardent youth or in one exhausted worldling, 
but in hundreds and thousands of men with ordi¬ 
nary hearts, and wants, and employments, to whom 
human life has become a fellowship with God, 
and a straight road to eternal joy. 

We have already said that we may speak of a 
physical miracle and of a mental miracle; and to 
this we may add a moral miracle. Mind, we 
have said, is greater than matter, and therefore a 
work wrought in mind is greater than one wrought 
in matter: it bespeaks not merely a power, but a 
spirit. Just as intellect sways matter, so does 
that for which it is hard to find a name—the 
moral nature, the self and substance of a man, the 
heart —sway the intellect. We will use the 
word “ heart,” not to signify the emotional nature. 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 133 

represented in Scripture by the “ bowels,” but the 
moral nature: that is, so far as man is concerned, 
nature. The heart commands the man. Give 
me a heart, and you give me a man: it carries 
both a mind and a body with it. Heart is the 
greatest thing below the sky; the nearest to the 
government above: that which sways intellect, 
and sways all things human. A work, then, 
wrought upon heart, is the highest order of ope¬ 
ration to which human nature can afford a sphere. 
Christianity professes to be a system for that 
which has never been otherwise professed—the 
renewing of bad hearts in the image of the God 
of heaven. To this all its powers are directed; 
and until this is done, Christianity is but a theory. 
All previous to this is but as the verbal explana¬ 
tion of principles by a physical philosopher, lack¬ 
ing his ocular demonstration. The problem of our 
nature is how to make the bad good; that is, how 
to change nature, which, by natural power, is 
absolutely impossible. 

In the physical miracle we see the God of 
nature accrediting revelation : in the mental mira¬ 
cle we see the God of mind accrediting revelation. 
In both these, nature is counter-worked, and a 
power above nature manifested. It is a grand 
and memorable thing to see the sea dried up, or 
12 


134 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


to see the human mine illuminated with the lights 
of prophecy or the gift of tongues; but the 
highest manifestation of a power above nature, of 
a power acting against and contrary to nature, is, 
when the bad suddenly becomes good; the impure, 
pure; when a clean thing is brought out of an un¬ 
clean • when the earthly becomes heavenly : the 
sensual, spiritual; the devilish, like God; when 
' the Ethiopian changes his skin, and the leopard 
his spots; when instead of the thorn comes up 
the fir tree, and instead of the brier comes up the 
myrtle tree. Here is the Ruler, not of the physi¬ 
cal universe overruling physical nature, or of the 
mental universe overruling mental nature, but the 
Ruler of the moral universe overruling moral 
nature, in attestation of the gospel of his own 
grace. 

This, though not in the technical language of 
theology a miracle, is so in common sense. Is it 
nature ? Is it reducible to natural law ? True, 
it is what is to be ordinarily expected in Chris¬ 
tianity ) but expected as what ? as a fruit of natu¬ 
ral agenc} 7 ? or of supernatural power accompany¬ 
ing that agency, and attesting it as from God ? 
Has any system of religion ever embodied such a 
conception as an evidence that God was in it, and 
working through it, which would admit of con¬ 
stant application, and, at the same time, would 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 135 


strike deeper into the human soul than any other 
imaginable demonstration ? This is the singular 
glory of the gospel. The recovery of nature from 
her fearful fall, the creating anew of man in the 
image of God, the presenting the fir instead of 
the thorn, the myrtle instead of the brier, is the 
“ EVERLASTING SIGN, WHICH SHALL NOT BE CUT 
OFF.” 

Other modes whereby the Lord attests and seals 
his messengers, whereby his operation accredits 
his word, have had their occasional and their 
glorious field; but this sign is equally adapted to 
all time, claims as its sphere all humanity, and 
addresses not the judgment merely, but the con¬ 
science of man, proclaiming to him the presence 
in the earth of a Power that heals human nature, 
and restores the like of himself to the image of 
God. 

Each sinner transformed into a saint is a new 
token of a redeeming power among men. That 
token declares to observers, not that there is a 
King in heaven, not that there is a u Father of 
lights,” but that there is a Saviour. And this is 
the testimony which the world especially needs. 
There are few things in religion which men doubt 
more than whether it is possible for them, as in¬ 
dividuals, to escape from their sins. No declara¬ 
tion of that possibility goes so far to convince 


136 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


* 

them, as seeing those whom they have known as 
weak as themselves, as addicted to evil as them 
selves, suddenly changed, and enabled all their 
life long to walk “as seeing Him who is invisi¬ 
ble.” This at once says to them, “ There is One 
who has power on earth to save from sinand 
when they know that their neighbor ascribes all 
to the cross of Christ, they feel that in that cross 
must lie an efficacy by which, if ever they are to 
find salvation, that salvation must come. 

The regeneration of a sinner is an evidence of 
power in the highest sphere—moral nature; with 
«.he highest prerogative—to change nature; and 
operating to the highest result—not to create 
jriginally, which is great, but to create anew, 
which is greater; for when nature has once be¬ 
come evil, how infinite the glory of the act 
^hereby again it takes its place in the eye of the 
universe, “ very good !” The creation of saints 
out of sinners is the demonstration whereby the 
divinity of the gospel is most shortly and most 
convincingly displayed. Of all the Christian evi¬ 
dences, it alone proves that our religion does save 
from sin. 

Again we look back to those three thousand, 
and in the sight we glory. Our nature is not 
hopelessly lost! Redemption is wrought out! 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 137 

Humanity may be sanctified ! Communities of 
men may be reared who shall dwell in peace and 
love, and earth may become a mirror of heaven! 
Never, below the skies—never, until the tragic 
history of Adam's sons is ended, can we escape 
the death which sin has brought upon us, and its 
correlative woes. But sin itself has found a con¬ 
queror : not sin in the abstract; not sin in some 
philosophical impersonation; not sin in the great 
prince of the powers of darkness; but sin in 
human hearts; sin in my nature; sin girt round 
with flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone, flow¬ 
ing in veins like mine, and appealed to by temp¬ 
tations of the mind and of the body, just such 
as my own. Sin in living man has been con¬ 
quered : its Conqueror reigns, his redeeming 
power is nigh; and in those converts at Jerusalem 
I see a pledge of my own deliverance, and can 
shout, “ I, too, shall be made free from the law 
of sin and death !” 

We see a pledge of the deliverance not only of 
individuals, but of multitudes; not only of fami¬ 
lies, but of thousands and tens of thousands. It 
has been too much the fashion for Christians to 
look upon pure and elevated religion as applicable 
only to a few. At a time when Christianity and 
holiness became different things, and true religion 
12 * 


138 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


was looked upon as something not for life, but for 
a condition secluded from life, amounting, for 
practical purposes, to a burial before the time, a 
style of thinking crept in which has never dis¬ 
appeared to this day. In the Church of Rome 
we still find it maintained that deep holiness 
finds its best place away from human life, in 
retreat and celibacy. Among Protestants this 
error is rejected, yet practical religion is looked 
upon as something not to be expected to gain 
thousands at a time, and to renew communities 
by its sacred power, but rather to be a select 
blessing for a few, scattered here and there, and 
everywhere little discerned., 

Look back to Pentecost. See Christianity at 
her first step raising up her army by thousands. 
She seeks not the wilderness : she seeks not the 
few: she affects not little, dispersed, and hidden 
groups. In the sight of Jerusalem, in the sight 
of the world, she starts as the religion of the mul¬ 
titude; the religion of fathers and mothers, of 
traders, landowners, widows, persons of all classes 
and of all occupations. She takes in her hand, 
at the very first moment, an earnest of every 
nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue, of 
every grade and age, as if to expand for ever the 
expectations of her disciples, and impress us with 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE 139 

the joyful faith that her practical redemption was 
for the multitudes of men. 

In the case of the converts of Pentecost, we 
are struck first with the suddenness of their con¬ 
viction, then with the sharpness of it, and then 
with the permanence of the result. 

When the humble fisherman began to preach, 
many who had witnessed the miracle were mock¬ 
ing : none had become saints : perhaps not a man 
in the crowd believed in the mediation of Christ, 
or in any other of the great doctrines of the gos¬ 
pel. They were adverse—not to say dogged, and, 
on system, enemies. His words were strangely 
edged : a sword went through the very souls of 
these men—a sword which told the consciousness 
that He who wielded it was the Unseen and the 
Almighty. As if the whole of life were recalled, 
as if eternity had pressed itself with all its weight 
into one moment, processes of thought that would 
have required long, long meditation, and yet 
longer description, flashed and reflashed across the 
soul; and the man found himself a sinner in the 
midst of his own sins, accused by the past, men¬ 
aced by the future, overwhelmed, confounded, 
discovered, and unable to wrestle against the one 
thought, “ What must I do to be saved ?” 

The sharpness of this conviction is equally 


140 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


amazing with its suddenness. Why could not 
the men control themselves? Why not go to 
their homes and think ? Why not take time to 
deliberate ? Why not avoid exposure to the pub¬ 
lic eye ? Why, but because, wounded to the very 
quick, they forgot all other considerations, and 
wanted to be healed ? They saw, they felt them¬ 
selves fallen into the hands of God ; and, for the 
moment, the eye, the voice, the opinion of man 
was shut out from their thoughts. 

If a man really saw an angel, or one “ risen 
from the dead,” we should expect that all consid¬ 
eration of bystanders would forsake him in the 
awe of the moment. And so, if in an instant a 
supernatural power opens the unseen world to the 
soul, with its one eternal Light, its heaven and 
its hell, although the view of these must be im¬ 
perfect and confused, yet if it is a view, a sudden 
view, it must shoot fear, wonder, awe, through 
and through the soul, till man and man’s opinion 
are as little thought of as fashion by a woman 
fallen into a steamer’s foaming wake. 

We find those who were affected by these sud¬ 
den impressions going on and on, month after 
month, sustaining in the ordinary walks of life 
the profession of saints; walking worthy, not only 
of themselves, not only of their teachers, but 
even of the Lord; leading such a life that “He 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 141 

that sanctifieth, and they which are sanctified, are 
all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to 
call them brethren.” This steadfastness in purity 
and piety, “ in the apostles' doctrine and fellow¬ 
ship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers;” 
in liberality such as no community had ever prac¬ 
ticed ; in “ gladness and singleness of heart, 
praising God, and having favor with all the peo¬ 
ple;” shows that the fountains of life had been 
sweetened, the depths of the soul reached; that, 
in a word, nature had been touched, changed, re¬ 
newed. 

The permanence of the change shows that it 
is one of nature: its suddenness, that it is ef¬ 
fected by supernatural means. Indeed, natural 
means can never change a nature, though they 
may greatly modify its manifestations. When 
we want to produce any moral impression on 
human nature that shall be permanent, we trust 
to slow and lengthened training. To turn a man 
from his ways, to turn him against his own in¬ 
terests, to lead him to place all he holds dear in 
continual jeopardy, purely for the sake of good¬ 
ness here and happiness hereafter, is what, in any 
natural scheme, we must attempt by beginning 
early and by laboring long. But if we are to 
depend not on natural processes, but on the power 
of God, then time ceases to be a matter of ac- 


142 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


count: the Infinite One declares his presence by 
accomplishing in a moment that upon which we 
had gladly spent a life. Whatever reasons may 
be advanced in favor of gradual awakenings ra« 
ther than sudden ones, this at least stands on the 
other side, that the sudden conversion conveys to 
all bystanders a much more striking impression 
of a power above that of man. What is gradual 
may be readily ascribed, by the ignorant or the 
unbelieving, to the natural results of human pro¬ 
cesses. They may say, “ The wonder would be, 
if, with so much teaching, so many homilies, 
directed to the one end of bringing man to con¬ 
sideration for his soul, he was not gradually 
brought to it.” But when, by some single and 
perhaps simple message, the work of conversion 
is done in an instant, it looks- like the raising of 
the dead. As to bystanding sinners, it first stirs 
their wonder, then moves their conscience; and if 
they see such cases multiplied, the feeling falls 
upon them—“ It is the mighty power of God !” 

Christianity was established by the creation 
of Christians. 

In the words, “ Continued steadfastly in the 
apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking 
of bread, and in prayers,” we see the effect of the 
regeneration of individuals on the character of a 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 143 


community. From a number of good men at 
once arose a united and fraternal society. States¬ 
men and philanthropists, occupied with the idea 
of forming happy nations, frequently look to good 
institutions as the means of doing so; but find 
that when institutions are more than a certain 
distance in advance of the people, instead of 
being a blessing, they become a snare and a con¬ 
fusion. The reason of this is obvious: good in¬ 
stitutions to a certain extent presuppose a good 
people. Where the degree of goodness existing 
in the people does not in some measure corre¬ 
spond with that presupposed in 'the institutions, 
the latter can never be sustained. As the organ, 
embodiment, and conservators of individual good¬ 
ness, the value of good institutions is incalculable; 
and he is one of man’s greatest benefactors who 
makes any improvement in the joinings and bear¬ 
ings of the social machine; but as a means of re- 
generation, political instruments are impotent. 
Good institutions given to a depraved and un¬ 
principled people, end in bringing that which is 
good into disrepute. In fact, it would be more 
correct to say, that institutions which are good 
for a people of good principles are bad for a peo¬ 
ple destitute of principle. The only way to the 
effectual regeneration of society is the regenera¬ 
tion of individuals : make the tree good, and the 



144 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


fruit will be good: make good men, and you will 
easily found and sustain good institutions. Here 
is the fault of statesmen—they forget the heart 
of the individual. 

On the other hand, have not those who see and 
feel the importance of first seeking the regenera¬ 
tion of individuals, too often insufficiently studied 
the application of Christianity to social evils? 
When the result of Christian teaching long ad¬ 
dressed to a people has raised the tone of con¬ 
science; when a large number of persons em¬ 
bodying true Christianity in their own lives are 
diffused among all ranks, a foundation is laid for 
social advancement; but it does not follow that, 
by spontaneous development, the principles im¬ 
planted in the minds of the people make to them¬ 
selves the most fitting and Christian embodiment. 
Fearful social evils may coexist with a state of 
society wherein many are holy, and all have a 
large amount of Christian light. Base usages 
fostering intemperance, alienation of class from 
class in feeling and interest, systematic frauds 
in commerce, neglect of workmen by masters, 
neglect of children by their own parents, whole 
classes living by sin, usages checking marriage 
and encouraging licentiousness, human dwellings 
which make the idea of home odious, and the ex¬ 
istence of modesty impossible, are but specimens 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 145 

of the evils which may be left age after age, curs¬ 
ing a people among whom Christianity is the re¬ 
cognized standard of society. To be indifferent 
to these things is as unfaithful to Christian mor¬ 
als on the one hand, as hoping to remedy them 
without spreading practical holiness among in¬ 
dividuals, is astray from truth on the other. 

The most dangerous perversion of the gospel, 
viewed as affecting individuals, is, when it is 
looked upon as a salvation for the soul after it 
leaves the body, but no salvation from sin while 
here. The most dangerous perversion of it, 
viewed as affecting the community, is, when it is 
looked upon as a means of forming a holy com¬ 
munity in the world to come, but never in this. 
Nothing short of the general renewal of society 
ought to satisfy any soldier of Christ; and all who 
aim at that triumph should draw much inspira¬ 
tion from the King’s own words : “All power is 
given unto me in heaven and in earth.” Much 
as Satan glories in his power over an individual, 
how much greater must be his glorying over a 
nation embodying, in its laws and usages, disobe¬ 
dience to God, wrong to man, and contamination 
to morals ! To destroy all national holds of evil; 
to root sin out of institutions; to hold up to view 
the gospel ideal of a righteous nation ; to eon- 
13 


146 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


front all unwholesome public usages with mild, 
genial, and ardent advocacy of what is purer, is one 
of the first duties of those whose position or mode 
of thought gives them an influence on general 
questions. In so doing they are at once glorify¬ 
ing the Redeemer, by displaying the benignity 
of his influence over human society, and removing 
hindrances to individual conversion, some of 
which act by direct incentive to vice, others by 
upholding a state of things the acknowledged 
basis of which is, “ Forget God.” 

Satan might be content to let Christianity turn 
over the subsoil, if he is in perpetuity to sow the 
surface with thorns and briers; but the gospel is 
come to renew the face of the earth. Among 
the wheat, the tares, barely distinguishable from 
it, may be permitted to grow to the last; but the 
field is to be wheat, not tares; wheat, not briers; 
a fair, fenced, ploughed, sowed, and fruitful field, 
albeit weeds, resembling the crop, be interspersed. 

The same words, “The apostles’ doctrine and 
fellowship, and breaking of bread, and prayers,” 
indicate the various exercises of religion, in 
which all Churches and individual Christians 
ought to “continue steadfast.” It w T as not a 
“preaching Church,” or a “praying Church,” 
the one in opposition to the other: they had both 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 147 

“ doctrine” (teaching) and “ prayers.” The idea 
of separating these two, or of setting the one up 
above the other, is foreign to the religion of the 
New Testament. They are no ministers sent of 
God who have not the gift of being “apt to 
teach.” They may be good and useful men; 
but the proof that any one never was designed by 
the Head of all for a certain position, is, that he 
never qualified him for it. All the authorities in 
the universe cannot make him an embassador for 
Christ, to whom Christ himself has given no 
power to beseech men to be reconciled to God, 
no power to warn every man and teach every man, 
that he may present every man perfect. The 
pretence of a Christianity without ministers, 
served by a priesthood who can manipulate, read 
prayers that others wrote, organize solemnities, 
and keep times and seasons, but who cannot 
“rightly divide the word of truth;” cannot 
“preach the gospel with demonstration of the 
Spirit, and with power;” cannot do any thing 
but what the most senseless or the most wicked 
of men could do, if drilled to it—is one of those 
marvels of imposition before which we are at once 
abashed and indignant—indignant that, with the 
New Testament still living, men dare palm this 
upon us for Christianity; and abashed that human 
nature is ready to accept such a travesty. 


148 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


On the other hand, the gift of teaching was 
not exercised to the exclusion, or even to the re¬ 
pression, of that of prayer. The disciples did not 
come together only when some one was prepared 
with a deep and weighty discourse on points of 
essential doctrine. Prayer was one of their 
habitual exercises : not merely hearkening to the 
solitary prayer of one gifted preacher, in the 
great congregation, before or after his sermon ; 
but prayers in frequent and familiar fellowship, 
prayers prompted then and there, without book, 
and without study; prayers of private disciples 
who had no higher gift, but who could pour out 
their requests to God; prayers by men with pro¬ 
vincial speech, and all the marks of being “ un¬ 
learned and ignorant,” but also with clear signs 
that the Spirit was helping their infirmities, and 
teaching them what they should pray for as they 
ought. 

Suppose that Peter had some day stood up, and 
said, “ Brethren, all things must be done in order. 
The use of vulgar tones and uneducated language 
is unseemly. Henceforth none shall pray in our 
assemblies but those who can do so without expos¬ 
ing us to the ridicule of the respectable. Indeed, 
to secure propriety, we have prepared proper forms, 
and all our future praying shall be from these Lit¬ 
anies and Collects written here, the language of 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 149 

which is the most beautiful of human compositions, 
and may, indeed, be called faultless.” 

Would not this have altered the history of the 
primitive Church ? Were not prayers, simple, un¬ 
premeditated, united—prayers of the well-taught 
apostle, prayers of the accomplished scholar, 
prayers of the rough but fervent peasant, prayers 
of the new but zealous convert, prayers which 
importuned and wrestled with an instant and irre¬ 
pressible urgency—were they not an essential part 
of that religion which holy fire had kindled, and 
which daily supplications alone could fan ? 

Surely no Church can be entitled to call herself 
a praying Church because, by a trained priesthood, 
she often reads old and admirable forms of prayer. 
Against such forms, suitably mingled with the 
public services of the Church, we mean to say no 
word: we use, admire, and enjoy them; but, with 
the Acts of the Apostles open, it is impossible to 
repress astonishment that any man should imagine 
that frequent and formal reading of the best forms 
ever written, unmixed even by one outburst of 
spontaneous supplication from minister or people, 
has any pretence to be looked on as the interced¬ 
ing grace, the gift of supplication bestowed upon 
the primitive Church. That in such modes holy 
and prayerful hearts may and do pour themselves 
13 * 


150 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


out to God, we not only concede, but would main¬ 
tain against all who questioned it. That such 
prayers are in many respects preferable to the 
one set prayer of one dry man, long, stiff, and 
meagre, wherewith congregations are often visited, 
is too plain to need acknowledgment. 

But gifts of prayer are part of the work and 
prerogative of the Holy Ghost; are of the very 
essence of a Church; and to deliberately shut the 
door against them, or so to frame ecclesiastical ar¬ 
rangements that they are practically buried except 
when possessed by the minister, the well-educated, 
or the influential, is a plain departure from apos¬ 
tolic Christianity. In no form is the tongue of 
fire more impressive, more calculated to convince 
men that a power above nature is working, than 
when poor men, who could no more preach than 
they could fly, and could not suitably frame a par¬ 
agraph on any secular topic, lift up a reverent 
voice, amid a few fellow-Christians, and in strains 
of earnest trust, perhaps of glorious emotion, and 
even of sublime conception as to things Divine, 
plead in prayer with their Redeemer. The pente- 
tecostal Christianity was not framed on the ideal 
of an accomplished circle, but on that of a Church; 
a Church including learned and unlearned, the 
refined and the rustic, the honored evangelist, 
prophet, or apostle, and the humble member with- 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 151 

out public gifts; but all rejoicing as members of 
one brotherhood, and each, in fitting time and 
mode, taking his share according to his gifts in 
the active work of mutual edification. A Church, 
to be apostolic, must have ministers powerful in 
preaching, and members mighty in prayer. 

They continued steadfast “in breaking of 
breadhence it is plain that it was not a purely 
spiritual system of worship, too spiritual to stoop 
to our Lord’s ordained symbols, or by the break¬ 
ing of bread to show forth his death. 

Besides breaking of bread, and doctrine, and 
prayers, “fellowship” is distinctly named. It was 
then not a Church where the “teaching” of the 
minister was taken for his fellowship with the 
people, and their “breaking of bread” for their 
fellowship one with another; but where, in addi¬ 
tion to public teaching, sacraments, and prayers, 
was another beauty of primitive Christianity, “fel¬ 
lowship.” Fellowship is family life, forming a 
circle, smaller or larger, to the members of which, 
joys, sorrows, interests, and undertakings are of 
common concern and matter of common conver¬ 
sation. Between the life of man as an individual 
and as a member of a great community, lies a vast 
region of affections, which can be filled up only 
by family relations. In public an individual does 


152 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


not indulge his affections: the greater the multi¬ 
tude, the more is the heart in privacy. The cit¬ 
izen who stands honorably with the public, and 
yet has no wife, child, or friend, to partake of hia 
life, is lonely: his place in the town council or 
the national legislature may be filled, and all the 
relations therein involved well sustained to him 
by others; but he lives without fellowship: if from 
bereavement, men compassionate him: if from 
choice, they turn cold at the thought of him. 

It would have been strange, had a Church meant 
for man, in all his aspects, individual, domestic, 
national, left the space between the individual 
and the public unoccupied; so that Christian life 
must have been divided into secret and solitary 
intercourse with God, and public solemnities, 
wherein each was a stranger to each: no family 
life, no circles of interwoven hearts, no unbosom¬ 
ing of joys, sorrows, and cares, no communication 
“one to another” as to the soul’s health or pro¬ 
gress. Had such a cardinal omission been trace¬ 
able in Christianity, it might have raised many a 
question as to how the tenderest elements of our 
nature—the social ones—had been disregarded in 
forming a bond designed to unite all men in one 
loving brotherhood. 

But the spiritual life of the primitive Church 
is redolent of family feeling. You have not there 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 153 

the solemn and solitary man, who has things pass¬ 
ing between himself and his Creator, of which he 
never breathes a word, though he will take his 
place in public assemblies, where his own heart is 
as effectually concealed as if he were in a desert: 
who regards any approach toward fellowship of 
spirit as an inroad on privacy; any inquiry for his 
soul’s health as a stranger’s intermeddling; any 
opening of hearts as weakness: who can live his 
religious life alone, and loves to do so, except 
when he comes into public: who wants no friends, 
fellow-helpers, or inner circle of companions; and, 
indeed, who loftily doubts whether sociality in re¬ 
ligious life is a very good thing. That mam who 
can find fellow-citizens among the children of 
God, but not family friends, may be a very good 
Christian, but not of the primitive stamp. 

What a glow of family heartiness runs through 
the New Testament! Instead of stiff souls, al¬ 
ways either dressed for the public eye, or shut up 
in solitude, you have brothers, sisters, friends, 
lovers, who cling to each other by mutual attrac¬ 
tion, and between whom the common talk often 
runs on their conversion, their conflicts, and their 
glorious foretaste of eternal joy. In writing to 
them, the apostles are manifestly addressing per¬ 
sons to whom one great event has occurred, the 
surpassing interest of which keeps it in continual 


154 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


remembrance. Once they were foolish, dark, 
wicked; carried away by evil passions, without 
God, and without hope. But a wonderful change 
has passed upon them—a deliverance from the 
power of darkness, and a translation into the king¬ 
dom of God’s dear Son; a change as if from being 
aliens to be of the household of God; as from 
darkness to light, as from life to death. To this 
great salvation, accomplished for and in them, 
the allusions made by their apostolic teachers are 
so free, incidental, and frequent, as clearly to 
show that it was a theme of unreserved aud joyful 
thanksgiving and wonder in their communications 
with one another. The dignity of the apostolic 
office does not prevent frank and touching allu¬ 
sions to personal conversion and to previous char¬ 
acter, as also to present attainments; and, on the 
other hand, even the babe in Christ is one whose 
happy experience is matter of open congratulation: 
“I write unto you, little children, because your 
sins are forgiven you, for His name’s sake.” 

The incidental proofs of the spirit which ani¬ 
mated the first Christians, as to fellowship with 
one another, would be perfectly conclusive if they 
stood alone; but some important passages of the 
apostolic letters are plainly meant to preserve this 
spirit for ever in the Church. “ Let the word of 
Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom : teaching 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 155 

and admonishingone another in psalms, and hymns, 
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your 
hearts to the Lord.” (Col. iii. 16.) Here is an in¬ 
junction, not to the ministry, hut to ordinary Chris¬ 
tians, to be well acquainted with the word of God, 
with a view to the edification of one another, by 
teaching and admonition ; but teaching and admo¬ 
nition which, so far from having the regularity of 
preaching, may even be, and ought frequently to 
be, in “ psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.” 
Such counsel could never be given, had a system 
been adopted wherein every word of teaching or 
admonition must fall from the lips of the minis¬ 
ter. Throughout the New Testament the system 
of the Church is assumed to be such as to call 
forth the gift of every member, no matter of what 
order it might be; and the active cooperation of 
each one is enjoined to promote the edification of 
all. “ From whom [Christ] the whole body fitly 
joined together and compacted by that which 
every joint supplieth, according to the effectual 
working in the measure of-every part, maketh in¬ 
crease of the body unto the edifying of itself in 
love.” (Eph. iv. 16.) Here “ every joint” is to 
supply somewhat, “every part” to perform its 
“effectual working;” and by this means the body is 
to increase, “ edifying itself” in love. No system 
can be made to accord with this passage, any more 


156 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


than with the general spirit of the New Testa¬ 
ment, wherein the pulpit is the sole provision for 
instruction, admonition, and exhortation: the 
great bulk of the members of the Church being 
merely recipients, each living a stranger to the 
spiritual concerns of the others, and no “ effect¬ 
ual working” of every joint and every part for 
mutual strengthening being looked for. It is not 
enough that arrangements to promote mutual 
edification be permitted, at the discretion of indi¬ 
vidual pastors or officers : means of grace wherein 
fellow-Christians shall on set purpose have u fel¬ 
lowship” one with another, “ speak often one to 
another, exhort one another, confess their faults 
one to another,” and “ pray one for another,” 
shall teach and “ admonish one another in psalms, 
and hymns, and spiritual songs,” are not dispen¬ 
sable appendages, but of the essence of a Church 
of Christ. 

Some make light of any “ teaching” which could 
be gained by the mutual exercise of the gifts of 
private members of the Church—not always 
either educated or wise—and think that only well- 
prepared addresses from the pulpit are instructive. 
The regular ministry of the word is undoubtedly 
the prime source of teaching, and on its vigor and 
clearness the life of all auxiliary agency will ever 
depend; but those who would reject the practical 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE, 157 

and home teaching of free-hearted “ fellowship,” 
little consider that to persons,of simple mind, or 
slow heart—that is, to the majority of mankind— 
the great problems, “ What must I do to be 
saved? What is believing? Whereby shall I 
know that I inherit glory ? Am I, or am I not, 
deceiving myself? How can I overcome this 
temptation, the sorest that ever beset a man ? 
How can I grow in grace ?” and such like, have 
often more light shed upon them by the plain 
statement of an individual as to how Divine mercy 
solved them in his own case than by any general 
explanation. In practical religion, as in all things 
practical, instruction is miserably incomplete, even 
though correct so far as it goes, if it does not 
bring before the student or inquirer actual exam¬ 
ples of the process he hears described. A minis¬ 
ter surrounded by bands of lively members, who 
with glad and single heart say as the Psalmist, 
u Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will 
tell you what he hath done for my soul,” has at 
hand “ living epistles” which he may send any 
inquirer to read; has practical demonstrations of 
his pulpit doctrines, by which he may at once 
convince and enlighten the doubter. One who 
seeks no such auxiliaries, who permits or encour¬ 
ages the frigid habit of walking each one with a 
14 


158 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


sealed bosom, rests all his hopes of success on 
the words of his own lips, and that without scrip¬ 
tural sanction. 

Some defend a plain departure from scriptural 
religion by openly questioning the utility of Chris¬ 
tian fellowship. One writer of note is so bold as 
to say that the spiritual experience of believers is 
Cl better never spoken about.” Though this senti¬ 
ment is completely alien to the spirit of both Old 
and New Testament piety, it is the natural fruit 
of the constitution of too many of our Protestant 
Churches. In them the social element of religion 
has been woefully overlooked. Provision is made 
for doctrine, for prayers, for breaking of bread ) 
but none for fellowship. A Christian may be a 
member of a Church, and yet walk all his way 
alone, no one knowing or caring to know of his 
conflicts q; his joys. If he is tempted, he may 
stand : if overcome, he may get restored: if 
happy, he may hide his peace among his secrets, 
and ask no one to rejoice with him : if he had lost 
his pearl, and has found it again, he may be 
silent, for his neighbors are not wont to be called 
together to take share in another’s cares and joys. 
There is something fearfully chilling in a state 
of things of which this is too fair a description. 
Religion is a life to be lived in fellowship: a 
conflict to be sustained, not singly, but in bands: 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 159 

a redemption, of which we are to impart the joy • 
a hope, an anticipation, of which the comforts are 
to be gladly told to those who “fear the Lord.*' 
We once heard a contrite inquirer after spiritual 
comfort say, “ It is ten years since I was received 
a member of such a Church, and during all that 
time no one has ever said a word to me about my 
soul.” And this is the case with tens of thou¬ 
sands who are members of Churches which pro¬ 
vide only for public instruction and ordinances, 
not for the social fellowship of saints. It is a 
mournful example of the effect of overlooking any 
one of the essential features of vital Christianity \ 
and a fair comment on the ungenial notion that 
religious experience had better never be spoken 
about. 

How would the Psalms be altered, could we re¬ 
construct them on the principle that all about the 
state of the soul, its joys, sorrows, temptations, 
wanderings, and deliverances, had better be kept 
in prudent reserve from the knowledge of our 
brethren ! How would the apostolic letters lose 
in dignity, tenderness, and power, as well as in 
instruction, could this frigid law of isolation once 
stiffen them! 

If we turn from Keligion in her own person, as 
viewed in holy writ, to look at a reflection of hei 
in one of the best mirrors, the “ Pilgrim’s Pro 


160 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


gress,” how would Bunyan have handled pilgrims 
who would stiffly or prudently close up their 
bosom ? A Christian, a Faithful, a Hopeful, who 
had nothing to say “one to another,” as they 
travelled on, respecting the beginning of God’s 
work in their heart, their escapes, solaces, temp¬ 
tations, and slips; a Christiana, a Mercy, a Great- 
heart, an Honest, a Ready-to-Halt, who would in¬ 
terchange no experience; holy damsels and genial 
Gaiuses who would have no questions to ask on 
such matters, would be a set of people whom 
Bunyan would not know, and whom, we suspect, 
he would castigate with good will. Indeed, he 
has given such some cutting stripes, as it is, in 
the person of Mr. Talkative, who, though fluent 
on doctrines and such points, was very reserved 
on experimental religion. Faithful, wishing to 
know how he was to bring him to a point, said to 
Christian, “What would you have me to do?” 

“Why, go to him, and enter into some serious 
discourse on the power of religion; tind ask him 
plainly, when he has approved of it, (for that he 
will,) whether this thing be set up in his heart, 
house, or conversation ?” 

Faithful having described how a work of grace 
“discovers itself when it is in the heart of a man,” 
puts the plain question, “Ho you experience this 
first part of the description of it ?” 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 161 

Talkative at first began to blush, but, recover¬ 
ing himself, thus replied: “ You come now to 
experience, to conscience, and God; and to ap¬ 
peal to Him for justification of what is spoken. 
This kind of discourse I did not expect; nor am 
I disposed to give an answer to such questions; 
because I count not myself bound thereto, unless 
you take upon you to be acatechizer; and though 
you should do so, yet I may refuse to make you 
my judge.” How many professedly religious 
men, who think themselves very different people 
from Mr. Talkative, and in many respects are so, 
would, nevertheless, feel much as he did, if any 
Faithful came as abruptly close home on the ques¬ 
tion of personal experience! 

Banish from the “ Pilgrim’s Progress” the so¬ 
cial element, the fellowship of hearts, the free 
recital of the Lord’s dealings with each pilgrim, 
and you would cool its interest down to a point 
which, doubtless, would be decorous in the eyes 
of some, but would never touch the many. 

u But is not what you call 1 fellowship,’ the 
meeting of the lay members of the Church for 
prayer, praise, and recital of experience, liable to 
be abused?” Most certainly; and that in sev¬ 
eral ways. But is not preaching the gospel liable 
to be abused, so as to be merely the means of dis 
14 * 


162 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


playing a man’s talent, or of diffusing error? * 
And baptism, so as to be put instead of the “ re¬ 
newing of the Holy Ghost ?” And the Lord’s 
Supper, so as to be put instead of holy living ? 
When we want to learn what is Christian, we 
never ask, What is incapable of being abused? 
for we should find no answer; but, What accords 
with the word of God ? 

And it does accord with the word of God. 
spirit and letter, that “ they who fear the Lord” 
should “ speak often one to another;” that the 
forgiven and happy sinner should have compan¬ 
ions around him, before whom he may celebrate 
the mercies of his Redeemer; that the weak 
should not droop unknown, nor those whose love 
is waxing cold be left to grow cold unwarned. A 
Church wherein, from the minister in the pulpit 
down, every man in his own order, “ according 
to the grace that is given to” him, is called to 
exercise his gift, and every member to lend his 
u effectual working” toward the general life and 
strength; wherein hearts are open, and fel¬ 
lowship is free; can alone answer to the New 
Testament ideal of a Church. How much of the 
failure of the various Protestant Churches to 
maintain religion at a high point of vitality for 
any great length of time consecutively, or to dif¬ 
fuse it generally among the nations which have 


EFFECTS OF THE BAPTISM OF FIRE. 163 

come under their spiritual care, is to be ascribed 
to their neglect of the social element of scriptu¬ 
ral piety, we do not profess to determine. But 
let those Churches who, as to this point, have 
been taught to seek after primitive spirit and 
usage, faithfully and immovably guard the inesti¬ 
mable treasure which has been committed to them 


164 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


CHAPTER V. 

PERMANENT BENEFITS RESULTING TO THE 
CHURCH. 

Among the permanent benefits resulting from 
Pentecost, we cannot include the visible flame. 
Of it we never again find any mention in the 
course of the apostolical history: it appears to 
stand related to the Christian dispensation as the 
fires of Sinai did to the Mosaic—the solemn token 
of supernatural power upon its inaugural day. 

Neither are we warranted in looking upon the 
“ gift of tongues” as one of the permanent privi¬ 
leges of the Church. Only twice, throughout 
the Acts of the Apostles, do we find any record 
that it accompanied the first introduction of 
Christianity to a place; and both these instances 
are very peculiar. The first was in the house of 
Cornelius, when Peter, preaching to his Italian 
auditory, felt some misgiving whether he might 
not by possibility be doing wrong, should he in¬ 
clude them within the fold of the Church; but 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 165 

he saw a great change pass upon the men before 
him, and heard them begin to speak with other 
tongues, and thus saw that, as to themselves at 
the first, the Lord had now given a Pentecost to 
the Gentiles. The other case is that wherein the 
disciples at Ephesus, who had been instructed 
m the baptism of John, but had not so much as 
“ heard whether there was any Holy Ghost,” re¬ 
ceived the word at the hands of Paul, and began 
to speak with other tongues. These two cases ex¬ 
cepted, we never read of this miraculous gift im¬ 
mediately attending conversions effected under 
the preaching of the apostles. It would not be 
just, from this circumstance, to infer that these 
were the only cases in which the gift was be¬ 
stowed ; but we may at least infer that it was 
not an invariable accompaniment of the first ap¬ 
pearance of Christianity, even in the apostolic days. 

Considerable question, as to whether it was de¬ 
signed to be a permanent gift of the Church, is 
raised by St. Peter’s discourse on this particular 
gift, in his letter to the Corinthians. It has been 
already remarked, that he there shows it to be 
destitute of any power of edification for the Church, 
and therefore not to be a gift likely to continue, 
where all were convinced of the truth of Christian¬ 
ity. “ Tongues are for a sign, not to them that be¬ 
lieve, but to them that believe not.” The only 


166 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


specific use assigned to the miracle is, that it is a 
sign to them who believe not. In any commun¬ 
ity, then, in which the whole population had be¬ 
come believers, this sign ceased to be called for. 

It seems to be frequently taken for granted, 
that the chief value of the gift of tongues was to 
enable the possessors of it to preach the gospel to 
the natives of countries whose language they did 
not otherwise understand. But this is never set 
forward, in the Acts of the Apostles, as a reason 
for the gift. A solitary stranger, possessing the 
gift of tongues, and passing into a country, the 
language of which was to him otherwise unknown, 
would have a great advantage in that gift; but, 
as has been already noted, not the advantage of 
thereby impressing the people of the country with 
a sense of the miracle—for they would probably 
believe that he had been taught their tongue— 
but of ability at once to proceed with his work 
and mission. It is, however, to be remarked that 
we never find this advantage quoted as one of the 
results of the gift. Except in the case wherein 
the gift of tongues was used as a sign to the dis¬ 
ciples that the Gentiles were admitted into the 
dispensation and community of the Spirit, the 
gift was no sign “ to those who believe.” Its 
one use was “ a sign” to unbelievers, and even to 
them not in ordinary circumstances; for then 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 167 

prophecy, and not tongues, was the profitable gift 
Not adapted to edify the Church, or to bring 
ignorant unbelievers to repentance, and fitted 
only to be a sign under exceptionable circum¬ 
stances, this gift does not seem clearly designed to 
be either universal or perpetual. 

We are not called upon to say that it will never 
be restored to the Church; for that is never said 
in the word of God; nor should we ridicule or 
talk disrespectfully of the faith of any Christian 
who devoutly expects its restoration. All we say 
is, that we have not scriptural ground to claim it 
as one of the permanent gifts of the Spirit; and 
we may add that, if it ever return to the Church, 
it will be, not a mystification, but a miracle; a 
real speaking with “ other tongues,” not a speak¬ 
ing in some unheard-of, unknown tongue. 

Having premised thus far, we come to the 
serious question, whether the Christian Church 
derives any advantage whatever from the dis¬ 
pensation of the Spirit, beyond that of looking 
back to a glorious period of miracle and power at 
her origin—a period which she may not regard 
as the dawn of a long and brightening day, but 
as a wonderful time of mysteries and portents, 
which were to have no permanent place in the 
Church. It may seem strange thus plainly to 


168 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


put the question, whether Christianity really has 
any benefits permanently resulting from Pente¬ 
cost ; but it is necessary to do so, in order hon¬ 
estly to meet, not so much well-digested and 
formally expressed opinions, as a habit of feeling 
often prevailing among professed branches and 
members of the Christian Church. 

Nothing is more common than to find the whole 
system of Christianity, as an organization for re¬ 
covering mankind from their sinful condition, 
spoken of, treated, and trusted in, as if it had 
been clearly ascertained that it was neither more 
nor less than a deposit of Divine doctrine cast 
upon the earth, forsaken by the Divine Power, 
and left to make such way among men as it might 
by the inherent force of truth, and the permission 
of auspicious circumstances. Cases are stated in 
which it is taken for granted that Christianity 
can make no way, simply because natural diffi¬ 
culties exist, such as natural agency cannot in 
reason be expected to overcome. Any thing like 
a consistent counting upon a superior power acting 
with the truth, and making it triumph over diffi¬ 
culties, such as on natural grounds are unconquer¬ 
able, is jauntily dealt with, as pertaining to those 
whose religion is not entitled to the veneration 
which Christianity has, by the lapse of ages, 
gained from mankind. 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 169 

In every thing practice is in danger, if theory 
be falsified; and after the right theory has been 
abandoned, the maintenance of right practice is 
always precarious, and never long-continued. If 
it be the true theory of Christianity, that the 
living power of the Holy Ghost, additional to 
pastoral agency, additional to scriptural truth, 
additional to every doctrine and every ordinance— 
a power by which the truth is applied and the 
agent quickened for his work—is not to be ex¬ 
pected as continually resident and active in the 
Church, that theory ought to be clearly stated 
and formally recognized on the part of all Chris¬ 
tians. If it be not the true theory, we should 
take care that it do not color any of our habits 
of thought. 

A religion without the Holy Ghost , though it 
had all the ordinances and all the doctrines of 
the New Testament , would certainly not he Chris¬ 
tianity. In it the presence and power of the 
Spirit are ever taken to be the vital element. 
Our world without its atmosphere, though the 
same, globe, with the same physical character¬ 
istics, would be another world; and, if inhabited 
at all, must be inhabited by a race governed by 
laws altogether dissimilar to those under which 
human life is sustained. The change from the 
15 


170 


THE TONGUE OP PIRE. 


Church of the New Testament to a Church with¬ 
out the Holy Ghost, would certainly not be less 
in its kind than this. 

All who seriously handle Christianity must 
recognize the presence of the Spirit as an integral 
part of its system and power; but if this presence 
is to be in some occult and inconceivable manner 
resident in an abstract Church; not in the hearts 
fof individual believers, not in the living temple 
of animated bodies and sanctified souls, but in a 
holy Church made up of unholy members, in a 
sacred ministry made up of secular persons, in 
holy houses where worldly multitudes gather, 
and in holy books which ungodly ecclesiastics 
handle; if this is to be the presence of the 
Spirit, then the debate as to whether it is to be 
expected in perpetuity or not, need excite little 
interest. 

If his presence is to entitle men to promulgate 
new doctrines contradictory to those already re¬ 
vealed in his own word, and even to withhold 
that word from the mass of their fellow-men, on 
the plea of denying them a deceptive guide and 
substituting an infallible one, then would his 
presence become a self-contradiction and a danger. 
In none of these lights have we the slightest 
reason given in the word of God to expect the 
presence of the Spirit. We hear not of him there 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 171 

as dwelling elsewhere than in the bodies of be¬ 
lievers, or ever yielding to future ages the right 
to depart from the ancient ways and the clear 
revelation of the Son of God. 

Neither do we find the promise of his presence 
so given that all action and effort on the part of 
Christians is to b6 made at every moment de¬ 
pendent on each person’s own impression of the 
Spirit’s movement within him. 

But while, on the one hand, we do not expect 
the permanent presence of the Spirit with the 
Church in the Romish sense, or in the sense 
maintained by estimable Christians of the So¬ 
ciety of Friends, we must, on the other hand, 
maintain, as we have said, that without his 
presence and operation in the hearts of believers, 
and in Christian agents, we cannot have the 
Christian religion. We do not expect visible 
signs or miraculous gifts; for these were not the 
substantial blessing and grace imparted at Pente¬ 
cost, but were to them only as heralds and ushers 
The real grace and blessing lay in what we have 
called the spiritual influence of the Holy Ghost, 
acting on the believer’s heart; his ministerial 
influence, acting on the Church; his converting 
influence, acting on the world. These, we con¬ 
tend, are necessary to the identity of the Chris¬ 
tian religion, and were bestowed for all ages, and 


172 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


will to the end of the world be shed on those who 
perseveringly “ wait” for the baptism of fire. 

Whence arises a persuasion which we seldom 
find formally stated, but constantly trace in the 
words of thoughtful men—that our mind is cut 
off from communion with the Father Mind, and, 
though able to draw knowledge from physical 
objects and from the minds of men, is without any 
access to the Source of spirit, or any recognizable 
lights from him ? On what inch of ground in 
all the realm of reason can we rest the notion 
that the Spirit of God does not communicate 
actively and directly with the spirit of man ? Is 
it that we are so completely outcasts that, though 
without doubt capable of being acted upon by the 
Divine Being for Divine intents, he will not 
touch subjects so mean? This would be the 
death-knell of intellect and morals; for, if thus 
cut off from the Source of light, our souls must 
be lost in the dark at last. The sense of sin gives 
to the conscience a feeling of banishment; the 
only answer to which lies in redemption. It is 
vain to answer it by mere reason; for reason 
offers no footing for the feeling, except on ground 
which revelation first discovers, and then bridges 
over by t*he cross. 

Is it that our mental perceptions are all de- 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 173 

rived through physical organs, and that, none 
such existing as channels between God and the 
soul, no communication can take place ? Few 
would be so bold as to say this: many are bold 
enough to assume it. What! no communication 
but through physical organs ? They never ex¬ 
plain communication, but only increase the mys¬ 
tery. Physical organs, it is true, are only acted 
upon from without , by physical objects; and all 
our sensations come through such organs. But 
they never have sensations. The organ receives 
an impulse from the light, the air, or other out¬ 
ward object, and transmits that impulse to the 
brain, producing a vibration there; but what a 
gulf between a vibration in a brain and a sensa¬ 
tion of a soul, or an idea of heaven, or an emotion 
of joy! 

It seems no mystery that two men should be 
able to communicate, but a great one that they 
should be able to do so through an iron wire, 
when they are a thousand miles apart. One 
makes a secret fire carry a thought from his mind 
through a wire toward the mind of the other: a 
sensation is given, and both arnSdea and an emo¬ 
tion follow; but the wire feels none of them. 
The impulse passes along it; and the mind inter¬ 
prets that impulse, and turns it into the image of 
15 * 


174 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


a dying father, a new-born babe, a ruined fortune, 
or a sovereign saying, “ Well done !” All the 
sensation, perception, emotion, lie within the 
mind, none of them in the wire. It is just so 
with organs: they transmit impulses, but they 
know nothing, feel nothing, and explain nothing. 
The power of communication is a mental power. 
Spirit knows, and gives knowledge. The wonder 
is not that a mind can impart its ideas to a mind 
such as itself, but that, being shut up in a silent 
chamber whence branch out wires incapable of 
one thought or feeling, it can pour along these a 
vivid and changeful fire which conveys its feeh 
ings to another. 

“No man,” says Paul, touching on these things, 
“knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of 
man which is in him.” To you all minds are 
invisible. True, the mind of your neighbor is in 
all respeets the fellow of your own; yet you can¬ 
not tell what is within it. It may be forming 
plans for your ruin or for your good; but this is 
beyond your eye, or ear, or heart’s divining. 
Every man dwells in the invisible , and often 
rejoices to look out upon a race, no one of which 
can look in upon him. Yet oftener does he re¬ 
joice to pour himself into others, and multiply 
his own feelings in the spirits around him. 
When the invisible “spirit of man” wills to 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 175 

make known “the things of the man/' it has 
easy, though mysterious, means at command. 

A man is seated in his chamber, and deep 
things are passing in his mind. His mother sees 
that he is thinking; but ask her to tell his 
thoughts, and she is at a loss. His wife looks 
into his eye, and knows that he is feeling; but 
ask her what is the spring and course of his emo¬ 
tion, and she is in the dark. His little daughter 
sees something lofty on her father’s brow, but 
what it is she knows not. Presently a thousand 
people are before him, and “the spirit of the 
man" is opening itself. A stream of thought is 
pouring from it; thought which ranges from the 
most familiar objects at hand, to those which are 
hidden in the bosom of eternity. Yet all these 
thoughts, mingled with suitable emotion, pass 
straight from his unseen soul into the souls of the 
thousand people. How is this accomplished ? 

Between him and them is floating a something 
which we call “sound." The keenest eye cannot 
see it; the most delicate touch, or smell, or taste, 
can find no trace of it. As it is rushing upon the 
ear, both eye and hand search in vain for it. 
Yet is it carrying invisible thought, from a soul 
invisible, by channels invisible, into the silent 
places of many souls, where the thoughts it 
raises are invisible to the nearest neighbor, till 


176 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


expressed in looks or words. The mind of the 
speaker pours a succession of impulses through 
hidden chords to his tongue and lips: these strike 
the air, in which the stroke makes a wave; that 
strikes on the drum of the ear, which causes a 
quivering of a nerve behind, that a quivering of 
the brain; and then the soul inside sees an image 
of Stephen dying, or Paul falling on the high¬ 
road, or Elijah ascending, or Jesus at the right 
hand of the Father! What connection is there 
between a wave of air, a quiver of the brain, and 
an idea of heaven or hell, of sin or holiness? 
That the connection exists, is plain; but how ? 
Make it plain how “ the spirit of man,” which 
“knoweth the things of a man,” can reveal them 
within other spirits. All we can say is, God has 
appointed a channel of communication, given to 
the spirit means of expression, and to its fel¬ 
lows means of perception. 

With this fact before us, illustrated not only in 
the one form just cited, but in a thousand forms 
every day, upon what pretext do we set up a cry 
of mystery as to the communication of the Spirit 
of God with man ? Absurdity can reach no limit 
greater than that of supposing that the central 
intellect knows no avenue to all intellect; that 
is, is defective in means of expression. Despair 
can hurl humanity no lower than to say that God, 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 177 

able to commune with it, enlighten, renew, and 
impel it, yet distantly stands away. For, if no 
communication exists, the reason lies in Him. 
To say that the defect is not in his power of 
expression, but in our power of perception, 
changes nothing: if He cannot u reveal the 
things of God” to man, with such powers of 
perception as man has, he cannot adapt the ex¬ 
pression of his own will to our state. 

Many who shun the extreme of denying that 
God does hold communion with human souls, yet 
cover the truth with a soft but cold cloak—a 
cloak of snow—by always speaking loudly of the 
mystery. What is the way of the Spirit? How 
can man recognize the voice, the eye, the counte¬ 
nance of God? How is it possible to feel his 
anger or his favor, his presence or his withdrawal? 
Is it not a mystery ? 

Yes, it is a mystery; but it is nothing more. 
A mystery is a thing we are most accustomed to. 
I know no one thing which I perfectly know. I 
know ten thousand which are full of mysteries. 
The nail of my finger is a mystery: the fact is 
manifest, the mode undiscoverable: about my 
hand I can ask more questions than all mankind 
can answer: wrist, arm, shoulder, all have mys¬ 
teries : as I approach the heart, the brain, what 
crowds of questions rise and are checked by the 


178 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


known impossibility of an answer ! If “the way 
of the Spirit” were capable of perfect explana¬ 
tion, the whole universe would be a riddle; for 
why should that which was so high be fully 
known, and every common thing under our eye 
contain mysteries ? The mystery involved in the 
Lord’s communicating with any of his creatures 
is far less than that of our communicating one 
with another. He is of infinite intelligence: He 
planted the ear : He gave man speech : for Him, 
therefore, to communicate with any spirit exist¬ 
ing, must be easier than for the sun to shine. 

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither 
have entered into the heart of man the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 
The apostle does not say this of heaven: he is 
not even alluding to it; for it is “the glory that is 
to be revealed;” whereas he says of the “good 
things” here in view, “God hath revealed them 
unto us by his Spirit.” These good things, then, 
are not teachings, for of them eye, ear, and mind 
take cognizance; nor heaven, for it is not yet 
revealed; but those blessings which “are pre¬ 
pared” for those who come at the Lord’s call— 
pardon, adoption, and the favor of God. Antici¬ 
pating the inquiry, “ How can those things be ? 
How can acts of mercy, which pass in the invisi¬ 
ble world, be revealed to us ?” the apostle gives 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 179 

this simple illustration: “ What man knoweth the 
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in 
him ? Even so the things of God knoweth no 
man, but the Spirit of God.” If the things of God 
are beyond our eye, ear, or discernment, so are those 
of a man; and if man can make his mind known, 
how much more the All-wise! “Now we have 
received, not the spirit of the world, but the 
Spirit which is of God, that we might know 
the things that are freely given to us of God.” 
Adoption is an act seen by no man; and were no 
communication of it made to him in whose favor 
it hath passed, he could never by his senses or 
reason discover it. Though adopted, he would 
lie in the spirit of bondage. But that we may 
not be ignorant of this essential change in our 
relation to our Heavenly Father, not ignorant of 
the things which his grace has bestowed, he has 
provided a Comforter, whose benign work it is to 
solace our hearts by letting us “know” what the 
Lord hath done for us. 

The belief that God does not commune with 
man, is no result of reason. Reason has no foot¬ 
ing for it. It is, indeed, hardly a belief: it is a 
feeling, followed by a sort of half-seen mental con¬ 
clusion. A boy conscious of deserving his father’s 
anger, somehow thinks he will not be received at 
home. Men, conscious that they are aliens from 


180 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


God, recoil from the thought that the very breast 
wherein they have caged things unclean may be 
a shrine of his presence. A feeling of moral im¬ 
probability, of unfitness, leads the mind to shrink 
from such a hope. Hope, indeed, it does not seem 
at first: the boy forgets the hopefulness of stand¬ 
ing by his father’s side in the dread of coming 
under his eye; forgets the joy of regaining his favor 
in the heat of enmity to his rule and restraints. 

A natural difficulty to the Creator’s communion 
with his rational creatures never existed. A moral 
one did; and never was problem so deep as, How 
could the Holy One take the impure to his arms, 
and yet continue the Holy One? That problem 
has been solved. The Holy meets the unholy over 
the blood of atonement. There is death for evil- 
doing, wrath against iniquity—yet mercy for the 
repenting. Sin is not encouraged, innocence is 
not confounded with guilt, and yet the fallen are 
lifted up. This moral difficulty being met, and 
no natural one ever having existed, did the Lord 
not commune with the soul of man as with his 
own “ offspring/’ the only reason must be that he 
pleased to cut him off from such fellowship. To 
affirm this would be to run into downright oppo¬ 
sition to the whole scope of revelation. 

Not a few of those who, if formally expressing 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 181 

their belief, would maintain that the Spirit is to 
abide with the Church in all ages; that the idea 
of impossibility in his communing with man is 
absurd, and the cry of mystery unmeaning; nev¬ 
ertheless, in practice, effectually shut out his 
agency from their own view, and that of those 
who may be under their influence, by continually 
speaking of the truth, the truth only, as the power 
to renew this sinful world. Far be it from us to 
undervalue holy truth, and, above all, that truth 
which flows untainted from the fount of inspira¬ 
tion; but a truth, even when Divine, is never 
more than a declaration of ichat is. It is not 
the power which renews the human soul, but the 
instrument of that power; not the electric current, 
but the conductor along which the current flows. 
It is necessary, as necessary as the metal wire to 
the telegraph; but, alone, it is as inefficient as the 
wire when the hidden power does not pervade it 
You may teach a man the holiest truths, and 
yet leave him a wretched man. Many who learn 
in childhood that “God is love,” live disregard¬ 
ing, and die blaspheming, God. Thousands who 
are carefully taught, “Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” neglect so great 
salvation all their days. Some of the most wicked 
and miserable beings that walk the earth are men 
16 


182 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


into whose conscience, when yet youthful and 
unsophisticated, the truth was carefully instilled. 
Did the mere truth suffice to renew, there are 
towns, districts, ay, countries, where all would he 
saints. 

Unmindful of this, and not considering the dan¬ 
ger of diverting faith from the power to the in¬ 
strument, however beautiful and perfect the in¬ 
strument may be, many good men, by a culpable 
inadvertence, constantly speak as if the truth had 
an inherent ascendency over man, and would cer¬ 
tainly prevail when justly presented. We have 
heard this done till we have been ready to ask, 
“Do they take men for angels, that mere truth is 
to captivate them so certainly ?” ay, and even to 
ask, “Have they ever heard whether there be any 
Holy Ghost?” 

On one occasion it was our lot to hear a preacher 
of name, preaching before a great Missionary So¬ 
ciety from the text, “I am come to send fire upon 
earth.” Choosing to interpret the fire referred to 
in this passage as the power which would purify 
and renew the earth, he at once declared the truth 
to be that power, and most consistently pursued 
his theme, without ever glancing at any thing but 
the instrument. Afterward, hearing the merits 
of the sermon discussed by some of the most emi¬ 
nent ministers of his own denomination, and find- 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 183 

ing no allusion to its theology, we asked, “Did 
you not remark any theological defect?” No one 
remarked any, till the minister of some obscure 
country congregation broke silence, for the first 
time, by saying, “Yes: there was not one word 
in it about the Holy Spirit.” 

The belief that truth is mighty, and by reason 
of its might must prevail, is equally fallacious in 
the abstract, as it is opposed to the facts of human 
history and to the word of God. We should take 
the maxim, that truth must prevail, as perfectly 
sound, did you only give us a community of an¬ 
gels on whom to try the truth. With every intel¬ 
lect clear, and every heart upright, doubtless truth 
would soon be discerned, and, when discerned, 
cordially embraced. But truth, in descending 
among us, does not come among friends. The 
human heart offers ground whereon it meets error 
at an immeasurable disadvantage. Passions, hab¬ 
its, interests, ay, nature itself, lean to the side of 
error; and though the judgment may assent to the 
truth, which, however, is not always the case, still 
error may gain a conquest only the more notable 
because of this impediment. Truth is mighty in 
pure natures, error in depraved ones. 

Those who compliment Truth upon her might 
have need of much self-possession. What world 
do they dwell in, that they can utter such flattery 


184 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


under the gaze of her clear and sober eye ? What 
are these nations yet neglecting commercial and 
political truth, though all their interests invite 
them to embrace it? What these “enlightened” 
populations that have had religious truth again 
and again held up in their view, but have angrily 
rejected it, though to the entailing upon them¬ 
selves innumerable social disadvantages? Where 
is the town where truth always prevails, or the 
village where error wins no victories? Do they 
who know human nature best, when they have a 
political object to carry, trust most of all to the 
power of truth over a constituency? or would 
they not have far more confidence in corruption 
and revelry? The whole history of man is a 
melancholy reproof to those who mouth about the 
mightiness of truth. “But,” they say, “truth 
will prevail in the long run.” Yes, blessed be 
God, it will; but not because of its own power 
over human nature, but because the Spirit will be 
poured out from on high, opening the blind eyes, 
and unstopping the deaf ears. 

The sacred writings, while ever leading us to 
regard the truth as the one instrument of the sin¬ 
ner’s conversion and the believer’s sanctification, 
are very far from proclaiming its power over hu¬ 
man nature, merely because it is truth. On the 
contrary, they often show us that this very fact 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 185 

will enlist the passions of mankind against it, and 
awaken enmity instead of approbation. We are 
ever pointed beyond the truth, to him who is the 
Source and Giver of truth; and, though we had 
apostles to deliver the gospel, are ever led not to 
deem it enough that it should be “in word only, 
but in demonstration of the Spirit and in power.” 

We well know that many who speak of the 
truth as accomplishing all, do not mean the truth 
without the Spirit to apply it; but what is meant 
ought to be said. Hold fast the truth as an in¬ 
strument divinely adapted and altogether neces¬ 
sary; but in magnifying the instrument, never 
forget or pass by the agent. The Spirit in the 
truth, in the preacher, in the hearer; the Spirit 
first, the Spirit last, ought to be remembered, 
trusted in, exalted, and not set aside for any more 
captivating name. There should never be even 
the distant appearance of wishing to avoid avowing 
a belief in the supernatural, or to reduce Christi¬ 
anity to a system capable at all points of meta¬ 
physical analysis. If no supernatural power is 
expected to attend the gospel, its promulgation is 
both insincere and futile. 

In their reluctance to acknowledge any super¬ 
natural element in religion, many take refuge in 
the idea that, after all, we are not to expect what 
16 * 


186 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


the primitive Christians enjoyed. If this means 
that we are not to expect miracles, to it we have 
no possible objection. If it means that we are tc 
expect less grace, we can give it no kind of 
credit. Nothing can he more contrary to the 
whole spirit and genius of revealed religion, than 
that the progress of years and events should be 
coupled with a diminishing amount of Divine life 
and grace among men. All things promise us 
progress, not retrogression. No principle of Chris¬ 
tianity, and no passage of the Christian Scrip¬ 
tures, warrant the expectation that the system is 
to decline with age, and to grow dim before its 
day ends. * The mode of thinking to which we now 
refer, seems to be closely connected with the favor¬ 
ite idea of unbelief in the world—that of the Al¬ 
mighty "leaving,” as men express it, one and 
another province of his territories to the care of 
secondary principles and powers. 

Limited as the human mind is, the idea of com¬ 
bining attention to the general and to the parti¬ 
cular always presents to it an extreme difficulty. 
In its own exprience, when taking a general view, 
it necessarily overlooks particulars: when minutely 
attending to particulars, it necessarily overlooks 
generals. Unconsciously transferring the idea of 
its own limitation to the Supreme Power, it would 
ease him of the incomprehensible task of at once 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 187 

minutely caring for every atom, and gloriously 
ruling the universe. But in the presence of the 
universal, the distinction between the particular 
and the general fades away. Artificial lights 
either shine in one particular apartment, leaving 
the street dim, or shine upon the street generally, 
leaving each particular apartment of the houses 
dim. But when the universal light arises, he 
knows no distinction between general illumination 
and particular. Every little casement in the 
world is equally lighted as the broad valley of the 
Granges, and every solitary daisy as well shone 
upon as if there were no other thing upon earth to 
lighten. 

u He leaves, he leaves : lie creates and leaves: 
leaves to the course of nature: leaves to general 
laws.” Such is the crude language we continu¬ 
ally hear from men who would transfer the small 
ideas of human sense to the infinite sphere of the 
Godhead. The idea of the Omnipresent leaving, 
forsaking any part of his own dominions : putting 
a limit to himself; creating in fact the most incom¬ 
prehensible of all incomprehensible things, a place 
where there was not a Creator—the idea of his 
presence being an effort, or his embrace and super¬ 
intendence of nature being a task, is unworthy 
even of the dignity of physical science, much 
more of the sweep of human thoughts. 


188 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


On the wings of the wind—on the universal 
flow of electric power—on the swift sunbeams, 
filling up with a finite infinity the whole expanse 
of the solar system at once—on the light of a 
fixed star present with our eye, and at the same 
moment present through .space inconceivably im¬ 
mense at every point from our eye to the star, and 
then away as far beyond, and round and round 
again at all conceivable points of the circumfer¬ 
ence on every side—on these confessedly finite 
objects our thought may rest, and rise step by 
step, till it easily springs to the idea of a complete 
and consistent Infinite, a presence literally every¬ 
where, a power constant as eternity, an activity to 
which inaction would be effort, an eye to which 
attention is but nature, and slumber would be an 
interruption of repose. 

Those who would^xclude the Divine Being from 
his own universe, have been often exclaimed 
against, and justly; but how much more may they 
be exclaimed against who would exclude him from 
his own Church, and from communion with his 
children ? Had his power been exhausted by the 
act of creating and establishing the Church, and 
then had he committed its future course to the 
development of natural laws and the inherent 
power of the truth, himself retiring from all 
action in the great battle whereupon he had set his 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 189 


servants, we might reasonably look upon Chris¬ 
tianity as a religion which, perhaps, was better 
than others, more serviceable to the social inter¬ 
ests of those who embrace it, and more genial in 
its influence upon the destiny of mankind; but 
higher motives than these for its propagation, or 
greater strength for the men who undertake the 
task, could not be calculated on. So far, how¬ 
ever, from this being the case, the express pro¬ 
mise with regard to the Spirit was, “He shall 
abide with you for ever •” and when about to leave 
the disciples as to his bodily presence, the Saviour 
said, “And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world.” A presence, this, better 
than a bodily presence—a presence by his Spirit 
and his power, whereby the souls of his children 
are made glad, and their hearts made strong, not 
in some solitary village of Galilee for the evening, 
but at the same hour all over the earth, wherever 
two or three are gathered together in his name. 
That presence will never be withdrawn while 
there is a believer whose heart embraces the pro¬ 
mise ; and such believers will not fail while the 
world stands. So far from any thing in Scripture 
countenancing the idea that Christians of all sub¬ 
sequent ages were to be deprived of that Divine 
help which constituted the strength and holiness 
of the primitive disciples, we have no intimation 


190 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


that they were to be even inferior in spiritual 
attainments. On the contrary, every thing coun¬ 
tenances the expectation that, as generation suc¬ 
ceeds generation, the influence of holy faith and 
holy example will steadily tend to the elevation 
of the standard. 

As Christianity makes progress among a popu¬ 
lation, every new household which becomes im¬ 
bued with it is an additional power toward 
elevating the standard of character in that neigh¬ 
borhood. It is impossible to calculate the influ¬ 
ence exerted, even in a country like our own, 
where religion has yet so much to do, upon those 
who are still ungodly. In many points their con¬ 
sciences have been trained, by force of example 
and precept, to a tenderness and activity which 
Christian doctrine alone could give; and, as age after 
age rolls on, and the proportion between the saints 
and sinners becomes altered, the latter diminish¬ 
ing, the former growing, the image of God in 
man will be yet more and more brightly seen, if 
not more conspicuously, in some rare and blessed 
individuals, yet much more generally, as a com¬ 
mon ornament and glory of human nature. For 
a Christian now to expect to be made as holy by 
the grace of God as the saints of the New Testa¬ 
ment, so far from being presumption, is scarcely 
a worthy measure of faith. It may be fairly said 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 191 

that, if we are not better than those who went 
before us, we are not so good; for the very light 
of their example sheds upon us an influence to 
which nothing corresponding was shed upon them, 
and thereby gives us a clear advantage, by which, 
with a similar measure of grace, we ought to 
present a character more complete. 

Were it once proved that our moral strength in 
the present day was natural, then, indeed, might 
we reasonably limit our expectations, but not to 
partial attainments and incomplete holiness; for on 
that ground the reasonable limitation would be, 
not, “ We shall attain to much, though not as 
much as the early Christians,” but, “We shall 
attain to nothing.” Our Lord’s word is not, 
“Without me ye can do little ,” but, “Without 
me ye can do nothing .” If it then be settled 
that in this age, as in the first, our strength is not 
of nature, but of the Lord, the reasonable range 
of our expectation, now as then, is to be measured 
by his glorious power. The question no longer 
is, Of what are we capable in ourselves, or by 
ourselves ? but, What can he perform ? and to 
what extent can he manifest forth his glory by 
making us monuments of his power, and mirrors 
to display his image ? That grace of his which 
was shed so plentifully on the believers of the 
first days, is not an intermittent radiance, like the 


192 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


flash of a human eye, but is steady as the glory 
which streams from the face of the sun. Waning 
or exhaustion it does not know; and from age to 
age, from generation to generation, his saints will 
grow more and more mature, human life will 
increasingly reflect the glory of the Lord, and 
display his power to make weak mortals, beset 
with temptation, meet to be partakers of the in¬ 
heritance of the saints in light. 

Some who gladly admit that the Church, gen¬ 
erally, may advance in Christian virtues, yet hes¬ 
itate to believe that individual Christians in our 
day are to enjoy the same comforts of the Spirit 
as were so conspicuous in the primitive Chris¬ 
tians. Among these latter nothing is more no¬ 
ticeable than filial confidence and joy : their recon¬ 
ciliation to the Lord, their interest in the death 
and intercession of Christ, their consciousness of 
regeneration, of deliverance from sins once reign¬ 
ing over them, their clear foretaste of heaven, 
and their peace in the prospect of death, shine 
throughout the New Testament and all the early 
records of the Church. This was the natural 
u fruit of the Spirit,” the natural effect of such 
a Comforter as the Redeemer had promised dwell¬ 
ing in the heart. Take this characteristic away, 
and they would at once fall from the level of 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 193 

“children of light,” of “heirs of God and joint- 
heirs with Christ,” down to that of the votaries 
of other religions, among whom personal “ joy in 
God,” and prospects of immortal bliss, are things 
unknown. 

As we said before, that a religion without the 
Holy Spirit would not be Christianity, so we may 
say, that religionists without the Spirit in their 
hearts would not be Christians. “ Ye are in the 
Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. 
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ , he 
is none of his” It requires much of that cold 
daring which men may acquire as to things spirit¬ 
ual, for any one who even respects, though he 
should not study, the record of Christianity at its 
source, to teach that it is not a common privilege 
of believers to enjoy a sense of their salvation, 
and to walk in the light of God’s forgiving coun¬ 
tenance. No scrap of holy writ even seems to 
favor this attempt to sink modern Christians to a 
point almost infinitely below that of ancient ones; 
for who can measure the distance between a soul 
which is singing, “ We know that we have passed 
from death unto life,” and one that is saying, “ I 
cannot hope to know, till death strikes me, whe¬ 
ther or not I shall escape dying for ever ?” 

A change more serious can hardly be imagined 

17 


194 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


in the relations of the Lord to his people, than 
would take place under the Christian dispensa¬ 
tion, if, beginning by enabling believers to say, 
“ We have a building of God, a house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens,” he ended by 
leaving them in utter doubt as to their future 
destiny : if, beginning by giving them a sense of 
his favor, clear as day, unspeakably joyful, he 
ended by leaving them to serve him throughout 
life, without ever feeling conscious that he smiled 
upon them : if, beginning by holding communion 
with them, he ended by leaving them to doubt 
whether he was even reconciled. It is trifling at 
once with a man’s common sense and with his 
most sacred hopes and fears, to tell him that he 
is called with the same calling as the early be¬ 
lievers, by the voice of the same Redeemer, 
under the same covenant of grace, and with the 
same promise of adoption; but that, while his 
brother, ages ago, had “ peace with God,” and 
“joy unspeakable and full of glory;” knew him¬ 
self to be a child and then an heir of God, and 
daily felt that heaven was his home; he is to pro¬ 
ceed on his pilgrimage without any of these com¬ 
forts, and learn at the end whether or not his 
soul is to perish. Who has given any man the 
right to assert that such a change has taken place 
in the relation of the adopting Father to his 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHUKCII. 195 

adopted children, affirming him to have grown, in 
our age, too indifferent to soothe their hearts, and 
make them partakers of the joy which he spreads 
among the angels when he declares that the “ lost 
is found ?” 

The change which the supposition we are com¬ 
bating would require in the office, or, at least, in 
the operation, of the Spirit himself, under the 
very dispensation of the Spirit, is sufficiently 
grave, one might imagine, to make the least care¬ 
ful pause, ere he assumed that it\ad taken place. 
The act wherein the everlasting Father absolves 
a guilty being from his offences, and recognizes 
him before the angels as an heir of his glory, must 
ever be of deep importance in the government of 
God. Of old time, when that great act took 
place, heaven rejoiced; but the deed did not re¬ 
main without effect upon earth. The King had 
proclaimed a pardon, and that proclamation must 
have effect. The Comforter sped to the mourn¬ 
er’s heart. a Where the Spirit of the Lord is, 
there is liberty.” With the presence of the Com¬ 
forter, the captive found u deliverance,” and he 
that was bound, an “opening of the prison;” 
and, tasting the liberty of the children of God, 
he sang, “ 0 Lord, I will praise thee: though 
thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned 
away, and thou comfo T *tedst me.” 


196 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


Are we, then, on the word of some men, with 
out one intimation of Scripture to support them, 
to believe that the Spirit has so essentially changed 
his mode of dealing with a forgiven sinner, that 
now the decree of pardon promulged above, and 
hailed by angels, receives no effect in the soul of 
him whom it absolves ? that the Comforter ab¬ 
stains from comforting, leaving the ransomed cap¬ 
tive still to mourn his captivity, without relieving 
him of his load or of his chain ? 0 Dove of Peace, 
ancient Comforter of the pilgrims who travelled 
this heavenward road before us! they say that 
thy wing has grown weary with the lapse of time ! 

How great a change would take place also in 
the privilege of believers! “ We are of God,” 
“ born of God,” “ heirs of God,” “ followers of 
God, as dear children,” “ fellow-citizens with the 
saints, and of the household of God;” “ once 
darkness, now light in the Lord.” Such was the 
sense of adoption enjoyed in apostolic times. Of 
all the privileges wherewith the soul of man ever 
has been blessed, or ever can be blessed in this 
life, by far the most consoling and elevating is 
the sense of adoption into the family of God. No 
man can read the New Testament, and deny that 
this was an ordinary characteristic of the believ¬ 
ers then living, or that it was a main element of 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 197 

their strength, kindling in them a joy which 
made them ready to face reproach and emulate 
high service. Where is the intimation that this 
privilege was to be denied to Christians in suc¬ 
ceeding ages ? 

When Paul says, “ But I obtained mercy, that 
in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long- 
suffering, for a pattern to them which should here¬ 
after believe on him to life everlasting,” does he 
give any intimation that the believers of following 
ages, though they should be believers just as he, 
and should obtain “life everlasting” just as he, 
and should have his case and his mercies before 
their eyes, as “ a pattern” whereby to measure 
their expectations from Jesus Christ’s “long-suf¬ 
fering,” were yet to lose an essential portion of 
the believer’s joy; namely, the power of saying, 
“ But I obtained mercy ?” Even the Psalmist, 
under a dispensation lower than our own, could 
say, “I said, I will confess my transgressions 
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity 
of my sin.” Does he hint that this is a privilege 
to which only few can attain, and from which the 
children of God, in the better days to come, shall 
be ordinarily debarred ? “ For this shall every 

one that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when 
thou mayest be found”—conveying a clear inti- 

17 * 


198 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


mation, that just as he, on confession of his sins, 
found forgiveness—such forgiveness as healed the 
grief of soul which he describes a moment before, 
and enabled him to sing, as he here does, u Blessed 
is he whose transgression is forgiven/’ (Psalm 
xxxii.,)—so would every godly-disposed person 
find an acceptable time, if he prayed to the same 
merciful Lord for like forgiveness. No godly 
man, no one whose heart was seeking after God, 
in the day of David, could read this without feel¬ 
ing that the “ blessedness” of absolution was held 
out to him as his privilege. Indeed, all through 
the Psalms it is taken for granted that the right¬ 
eous man rejoices in his forgiving God. And 
does the grace of our blessed Redeemer grow nar¬ 
rower as time advances? Does he gradually 
withdraw the light of his countenance till upon 
us of the latter days complete darkness settles, 
and we are doomed to grope our way through 
life’s temptations without the encouragement of 
one smile from him, and at the end to set a doubt¬ 
ful foot on the threshold of eternity ? 

The idea of any such deterioration in the privi¬ 
lege of believers is totally groundless; without 
one prop in Scripture or in reason. It is a struc¬ 
ture of ice, formed in cold seasons, and melts 
away when brought either into the sunlight of 
Scripture or the warmth of living Christian soci- 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 199 

ety. We could not easily believe in any accession 
to our privileges, beyond those of our brethren in 
early times, unless it were clearly taught in the 
word of God; but if, without Scripture proof, we 
must believe either in an increase or in a diminu¬ 
tion of them, we should choose the former, as fai 
more supported by the analogy of the Lord’s deal 
ings with men. 

“ Peace ” was the Saviour’s legacy to his fol¬ 
lowers; peace to be imparted by the Comforter; 
peace which the world cannot give, and which 
passeth understanding. He leaves no hint that 
this legacy was to be recalled before “ the end of 
the world.” Indeed, in both the Old Testament 
and the New, happiness is an essential part of 
religion; that kind of happiness which is called 
“joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 
The reigning of such joy in any human bosom 
clearly presupposes that the individual is satisfied 
of the reconciliation of God to him, notwithstand¬ 
ing his sins. Wherever this is doubtful, distrust, 
fear, and gloom must ever accompany the contem¬ 
plation of the Most High; and this gloom would 
settle most densely on the most contrite spirit. 
Happiness is to be a feature of religion to the last. 
That odious caricature of Christianity, which offers 
to the view of the world a man with all the doc¬ 
trines of the gospel on his lips, but gloom on his 


200 


THE TONGUE 01 FIRE. 


brow, disquiet in bis eye, and sourness in his bear¬ 
ing, has done infinite injustice to our benign reli¬ 
gion, and infinite harm to those who never knew 
its worth. Now, as in the days of Solomon, “her 
ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths 
are peace.” Now, as in the days of David, she 
“puts gladness into the heart, more than in the 
time that their corn and their wine increased.” 
Now, as in the days of Paul, she gives “joy and 
peace in believing.” Happiness is not a separa¬ 
ble appendage of true piety: it is part of it, and 
an essential part: “The joy of the Lord is your 
strength.” Some would regard happiness as if it 
were to religion what a fine complexion is to the 
human countenance—a great addition to its beau¬ 
ties, if present; but if not, no feature is wanting. 
In the sacred writings, from first to last, it is re¬ 
garded as a feature which we cannot remove with¬ 
out both wounding and defacing. The kingdom 
of God is not only “righteousness,” but “right¬ 
eousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” 

While that kingdom stands, this “joy in the 
Holy Ghost” will be the privilege of the children 
of God; and let no man stand between the hum¬ 
blest believer of this our day and the full light of 
his Redeemer’s countenance. Let none take it 
for granted that the work of God in the soul of 
man has degenerated; that the merciful Father no 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 201 

more gladdens the prodigal he Accepts, by letting 
him know he loves him; that Jesus no longer says, 
“Be of good cheer: thy sins be forgiven thee;” 
or that when a penitent is accepted as a son, the 
gracious Comforter does not now, as in the old 
time, hasten on his dove-like message to diffuse 
heavenly peace in another troubled bosom. 

The assertion sometimes confidently made, that 
the witness of the Spirit to our adoption is given 
to some believers, years after their conversion, as 
the reward of special holiness, has not even a pre¬ 
text of scriptural footing. The witness of the 
Spirit, so far from being the reward of sanctifica¬ 
tion, is one of its chief springs; for without love 
there is no holiness, and we only love because we 
feel that God first loved us. “Because ye are 
sons , God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son 
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Not 
because you are old and eminent among the sons 
of God, but because you are sons: it is not a good- 
service reward, but a birthright; not a crown of 
distinction, but a joy of adoption. “ In whom ye 
also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, 
the gospel of your salvation; in whom, after that 
ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit 
of promise.” Here the order is, “Ye heard, be¬ 
lieved, were sealed:” no long period of doubt and 
labor intervenes between the believing and the 


202 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


sealing. The father of the prodigal does not keep 
him for years, working “as one of his hired ser¬ 
vants,” before he prints the fatherly kiss of recon¬ 
ciliation on his cheek and on his heart. 

The hackneyed objection, that it is presumption 
for any one to say that he is a child of God, takes 
too much for granted. It never is presumption 
to acknowledge what you are. Had David never 
been taken from the sheepcote and made king, it 
would have been presumption in him to say that 
he had; but, when it was the case, he was in grati¬ 
tude bound to own and to commemorate the mercy 
showed to him. So, if a man has not been deli¬ 
vered from the dominion of sin and adopted into 
the family of God, for him to say that such is the 
case is presumption; but if he has, then not to 
praise his Redeemer for it would be ingratitude. 
Saying that it is presumption for any one to call 
himself the child of God, takes it for granted 
that no one is; or else it is absurd. Presumption 
has many forms; and it is worth considering, 
whether a great and good Being would most dis¬ 
approve the presumption which expected too much 
from his goodness, or the presumption which dared 
positively to disbelieve his promise. 

Many who readily admit that, to some extent 
at least, the Church in all ages will enjoy the gifts 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 203 

and graces of the Holy Spirit, and who would not 
deny that the first believers were favored with di¬ 
rect manifestations of the favor of God, yet make 
a difficulty of believing that, when sinners are 
forgiven in the present age, they are comforted by 
the Spirit manifesting himself in their hearts, and 
crying, “Abba, Father.” They do not deny that, 
even in our day, forgiven sinners are solaced with 
a confidence that they are forgiven; but they see 
prudential reasons against admitting that this is 
imparted by the direct witness of the Spirit, and 
would arrive at it by a process which, however 
unwittingly on their part, removes the office of 
sealing the adopted children of God from the 
Spirit, and gives it to the reason of man. They 
teach the seeker of salvation that, instead of look¬ 
ing to the Cross for mercy, till the Spirit, as the 
Comforter, “reveals the Son of God in his heart,” 
he is certainly to look to the Cross, but not to ex¬ 
pect that to bring any such manifestation; on the 
contrary, he is only to learn what are the marks 
of a child of God, to compare his life with them, 
and, if it and they agree, his mind will arrive at 
the comfortable persuasion that he is a child of God. 

This is one instance of the common error of tak¬ 
ing part of a process for the whole. On the part 
of the Christian, the comparison of the scriptural 
marks of the regenerated with his own character 


204 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


is not only good, but absolutely necessary; for, no 
matter what may be his supposed comforts, joys, 
or revelations, if, in his life, he is not led by the 
‘Spirit of God, he is not a son of God. But be¬ 
cause certain evidence is essential as a corrobora¬ 
tion, it does not follow that it is the chief evidence 
of the fact, the first ground of conviction. As a 
guard against delusion, a strengthening of our con¬ 
fidence, and a constant stimulus to press forward 
to the things which are before, a sober judgment 
passed upon our own progress in grace is scriptu¬ 
ral, rational, and indispensable. As the mode of 
binding up the broken heart of a penitent, of im¬ 
parting to him the first feeling of filial confidence 
in the Lord, it is neither scriptural nor rational. 
It never can be the original ground of conscious¬ 
ness in any soul, that, through the abundance of 
grace, I, even I, am an adopted child of God. 

Yet this is the consciousness to be given, and 
that not to the heart of one who is “ whole,” but 
of one who is u sicknot of a man who thinks 
that he is good, who is ready to interpret every 
thing in his own favor, and has no feeling that 
he is vile, or that the Lord is angry with him; 
but of one who now feels what probably he be¬ 
lieved all his life, that he is a sinner, covered 
with dark and filthy spots, the displeasure of the 
Lord hanging over him for many unholy deeds, 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 205 

and his poor soul both fitted for destruction and 
exposed to it. Until painfully sensible of his 
need of Christ, no man flees to him for refuge; 
and one in this state of feeling is soberly told 
that his burden is to be removed, and the sense 
of his salvation to be originated, by his being 
satisfied of the agreement of his own life with 
the fruits of the Spirit, as stated in the word of 
God. 

What are those fruits? “Love, joy, peace/ 
etc., or “righteousness and peace and joy in the 
Holy Ghost.” No enumeration of the fruits of 
the Spirit will be found which excludes peace 
and joy, much less love; and from these graces— 
if, indeed, not from the last-named alone—spring 
the various fruits which unitedly constitute “ right¬ 
eousness.” The poor penitent, then, is not to be 
first relieved of his load, and given to feel that 
God loves him; but, previous to obtaining such 
Divine comfort, he is to become satisfied that his 
love, joy, peace, and other graces, are such as 
mark the children of God! that is, while yet 
feeling that the Lord is angry with him, he is to 
love the Lord; while yet feeling that his soul is 
unsaved, he is to feel joy in the Holy Ghost. If 
it be said that the feeling of the Lord’s wrath 
and his own danger is removed before the filial 
18 


206 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


affections appear, then a direct action of the Com¬ 
forter, antecedent to his satisfaction with his own 
graces, is admitted; and if that be denied, there 
is no alternative but to conclude that, at the same 
time and in the same heart, one can both feel 
that he is under God’s anger, and love God as a 
forgiving Father: can feel that he is in danger 
of hell, and enjoy spiritual peace. If the sense 
5 of wrath and danger is removed before the fruits 
of the Spirit appear, there is a direct witness of 
the Spirit himself; if not till after, the totally 
incompatible states of mind just mentioned mu«t 
coexist. 

The relation of the fruit of the Spirit to the 
witness of the Spirit is clearly indicated to us. 
John says, “We love him because he first loved 
us.” Here the fruit, “We love,” is made con¬ 
sequent on our sense of the fact , u He first loved 
us.” To say that we first know that God loves 
us, because we feel that we love him, is to make 
the fruit of the Spirit the foundation of the wit¬ 
ness of the Spirit: a relation totally repugnant to 
the principle announced in this text, and per¬ 
vading the New Testament, as, indeed, also the 
Old. “ Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget 
not all his benefits; who forgiveth all thine ini¬ 
quities.” The fact of forgiveness ascertained is 
the ground of filial gratitude; not filial gratitude 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 207 

the ground from which the fact of forgiveness is 
inferred. 

Mental conclusions, as to spiritual truths, do 
not govern the feelings. The marks of “ a child 
of wrath” are plainly laid down. Thousands 
know that they bear them; and yet this produces 
no contrition or distress, till the coming Spirit 
pierces their hearts. As it is with convincing, 
so would it be with comforting. A mental con¬ 
clusion as to my own spiritual attainments would 
never dispel a sense of guilt from my conscience, 
nor make my trembling heart u rejoice in the 
Lord.” Did an awakened sinner conclude a 
hundred times that the marks in the Bible and 
the traits in his character agreed, his wounded 
spirit having no other balm, all this concluding 
would never heal his sore. The same voice which 
spoke condemnation into his conscience, must 
speak justification: the same hand which broke 
his hard heart must bind it up. 

The deeper the penitence of any one, the 
slower would he be to take comfort from any 
good in himself; therefore, on a theory which 
makes this the foundation of comfort, the farther 
would he be from finding rest; while, on the more 
evangelical view, the very depth of his penitence 
would drive him the more speedily to bring his 
burden to the cross, when it would fall off. 


208 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


This allusion brings Bunyan and his Pilgrim 
once more to our view. He does not set Chris¬ 
tian to undo his own burden by arguing, “ I have 
fled from the City of Destruction; I have for¬ 
saken house and friends, wife and children ; have 
resisted temptations to return; have knocked at 
the gate and entered in, and am in the narrow 
path;” but, with all this done, he brings him to 
“a place somewhat ascending,” where stands a 
cross, and, “just as Christian came up with the 
cross , his burden loosed from off his shoulders, 
and fell from off his back.” He did not cast off 
the burden by a process which could easily be 
explained; but, when he set his eye on the cross, 
it fell off itself; and “ it was very surprising to 
him that the sight of the cross should thus ease 
him of his burden.” And so it is to others; but, 
however surprising, do thou, my penitent brother, 
heed no other direction than that which points 
thine eye straight to the cross; for pardon, for 
escape from hell, for rest, and hope, and purity, 
look thither, thither, only thither ! If thy bur¬ 
den fall not at once, yet still look, look to the 
cross; and fall it will, far sooner and far more 
surely than if thou attempt to untie it by thy 
arguments 1 

As Christian thus stood before the cross, won¬ 
dering, the “ Three Shining Ones came to him: 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 209 

the first said, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee;’ the 
second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him 
with change of raiment; the third, also, set a 
mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll with 
a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he 
ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial 
gate/' 

This is unsophisticated Christianity. A bur¬ 
dened sinner, after discouragements and wander¬ 
ings, comes, at last, to the foot of the cross. He 
looks, and is healed : his pardon, freely given, is 
tenderly manifested to him. The Father, Son, 
and Spirit unite to assure his heart, and give him 
present and abiding peace. He receives an evi¬ 
dence of acceptance, where he may always 

“ Read his title clear 
To mansions in the skies.” 

After this, the more he “searches’’ his own self, 
“and proves” his own self, “whether he be in the 
faith,” the better for his vigilance and progress. 
But no such examining before would have un¬ 
loosed his burden, or given him the roll. 

The theory of an inferential comforting of be¬ 
lievers, as a substitute for the scriptural mode of 
a “witness” of the Spirit, is singularly hopeless; 

18 * 


210 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


for, at every step, it is obliged to lean upon that 
which it professes to dispense with and replace 
It rests all “ quietness and assurance” for peni¬ 
tent hearts on the fruits of the Spirit; and the 
very chief of those fruits, “love,” etc., presup¬ 
poses the witness of the Spirit by a necessity as 
clear as that by which repentance presupposes 
his convincing operation. 

No: the sealing and solacing of penitent be¬ 
lievers is not left to mere reasoning, especially 
with a foundation so liable to be misapprehended 
as our own attainments in grace. It is the work 
and office of that “ other Comforter” whom our 
dying Lord promised; and let no man take it out 
of his hand ! He it is who “cries” in the heart, 
“Abba, Father!” he who seals, he who bears 
witness, he who sheds abroad the love of God, he 
who enables us to know the things that are freely 
given to us of God. Any attempts to escape the 
mystery involved in the Holy Spirit revealing the 
mercy of God to a human soul, only leads to con¬ 
tradictions and perplexities. To the old question, 
“ How can these things be ?” the one sufficient 
answer is, “ They are spiritually discerned.” 
What the Lord spiritually reveals, the soul can 
spiritually discern; and a Divine presence, or a 
Divine communication, may be assumed always 
to carry its own evidence with it, first to the con- 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 211 

sciousness, and then, by its fruits, to the reason. 
“ One thing I know : whereas I was blind / now 
I see.” 

It is not to be wondered at that many who are 
sincere, and even earnest, pass the days of their 
pilgrimage in gloom, having no roll in their bosom 
which they know can be presented “ at the celes¬ 
tial gate;” no conscious title to enter into the 
city; no permanent “joy or peace in believing.” 
Nothing is more dangerous than to divert the eye 
from the one object of faith. And if persons 
are not taught to look, and look upon the cross, 
until their sins are blotted out, and the comfort¬ 
ing Spirit himself heals their wounds, but to seek 
rest by noting their own progress in the Christian 
graces, and are at the same time left without any 
fellowship of saints, through which they might 
learn by what steps of fear and doubt, of despair, 
and hope, and faith, others, whose whole spirit 
savors of the peace of God, obtained that bless¬ 
ing ; is it not natural that they should walk in 
dim moonlight, instead of walking in the sun? 
Yet, even amid those so dealt with, the Lord 
oftentimes breaks up man’s theories by convert¬ 
ing a sinner with such manifestation of the Spirit, 
that it would be equally impossible to persuade 
him that his peace first came by contemplating 


212 


THE TONGUE OE FIRE. 


his graces, and to keep him from telling what tho 
Lord had done for his soul. 

The character of the Christian Church, as a 
whole, must always be ruled by the character of 
individual Christians; for the Church is but the 
assembly and aggregate of individuals. If, then, 
as the ages advance, the individual Christian de¬ 
generate, the Church must gradually degenerate 
also, her ministry be debilitated, and her efforts 
upon the world be less fruitful. All Christian 
character depends on the relations of the soul 
with its Creator: if these be cold, instead of be- 
ing joyous, if they be governed by the feeling 
of a doubtful reconciliation, instead of that of a 
happy sonship, then, of necessity, the life is over¬ 
cast with the shadows of not improbable perdi¬ 
tion, instead of being sunned with cloudless 
hopes of glory; and service is rendered as to an 
austere Master, instead of to a most forgiving and 
loving Father. Strike from the language of the 
Christian the words, “ Our fellowship is with the 
Father and the Son,” and at once we have a race 
whose religion is not the religion of John, whose 
heart-strength is not drawn from the same sources 
as his. 

Whether it be in comforts, in sensible com¬ 
munion with the reconciled Deity, or in practical 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO TIIE CHURCH. 213 

sanctification of life, we contend that all Scrip¬ 
ture holds out to us disciples of this actual hour, 
poor and undeserving though we be, the same 
sources and the same measure of grace as were 
open to our brethren of former times. There 
has been no recall of the Spirit, no curtailing of 
the “ abundant pardon,” no abridging of the 
privileges of the adopted. The promise of the 
Holy Spirit was not only to the first converts; 
but, as Peter, addressing them, said, “ to us, and 
to our children , and to all that are afar off ’ even 
to as many as the Lord our God shall call. ,} 
However distant from that spot in Jerusalem, 
and however distant from that moment of time, 
the call might sound, it would carry with it the 
promise; even that promise, the fulfilment of 
which made the early Church so holy and so vic¬ 
torious. The flames, the tongues, the outward 
signs, were not the saving grace of the Spirit. 
That was “ within you,” in the soul of man, and 
was shown in “new creatures.” That saving 
grace of the Spirit, working in Christians now, 
constitutes their identity with those of old. 
Without this, in apostolic times, though one 
spoke with “ the tongues of angels and of men,” 
and could “work all miracles,” he was not a true 
disciple. With this, in our times, though one 
work no miracle, and speak not with tongues, he 



214 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


is a true disciple; for, “ as many as are led by 
tbe Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” 
Miraculous gifts were not of the essence, but 
separable attendants, of a real Christian; and all 
that was then essential remains to us, unimpaired 
and free as ever it was to them. 

Father, Son, and Spirit! pardon the unbelief 
which has imagined that thou didst repent of the 
exceeding abundance of grace once given to thy 
ransomed Church ! Afflict us not, on account of 
it, by a real withdrawal of thy presence ! Mani¬ 
fest forth thy glory anew, by filling thy children 
with joy and light, that the world may see that 
thine ancient love and grace remain our heritage! 

Next to the question, whether the privileges 
of the modern Christian, as respects grace, are to 
be equal with those of the primitive one, comes 
the question, whether the Christian ministry is 
now essentially the same institution as at first? 
If believers are not now the same as formerly, it 
is impossible that the same religion should be 
preserved in the world; and if the ministers be 
not the same, it is highly improbable that the 
ordinary members of the Church will be so. Few 
would take the ground that our Lord founded his 
ministry on an unstable basis, requiring essential 
changes to render it capable of perpetuation in 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 215 

any age or country to which Christianity might 
extend ; and all would admit the high probability 
that the principles on which he established it 
were those best adapted for its success under 
every future change of circumstances. 

When we look at the example of the New Tes¬ 
tament, in spirit, usages, and principles, it is too 
manifest to need more than assertion, thathhe 
anointing of the Holy Spirit was the one thing 
0 essential in the minister of the gospel. As we 
have before said that a religion without the Holy» 
Spirit would not be Christianity, and that reli¬ 
gionists without the Holy Spirit would not be 
Christians, so we may strongly say that teachers 
without the Holy Spirit would not be Christian 
ministers, according to the original sense of that 
term, the only sense in which we find it employed 
in the sacred writings. Every arrangement re¬ 
specting the training or labors of Christian min¬ 
isters, which does not proceed upon the ground 
that they are certainly to be men first regenerated, 
then gifted for the.ministry, and moved to it, by 
the operation of the Holy Spirit—an operation 
not to be assumed without proof, but to be tested 
by its fruits—must be as faulty in theory, and as 
inefficient in practice, as any arrangement for the 
employment of fire-arms which did not proceed 
on the ground that explosion is the source of 


216 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


power. The bow was a mighty weapon, and its 
combination of steel and timber, of cord and arm, 
of the strength of the vegetable, the mineral, the 
animal, entitled it to the admiration and confi¬ 
dence of many a host; and, as all its forces were 
mechanical, no question ever needed to be raised 
but one lying within the limits of mechanical in¬ 
quiry. But the moment you adopt powder as 
your impeller, the elasticity of yew, or the strength 
of muscle, are considerations out of place. You 
* have left mechanics, and cast yourself upon chem¬ 
istry; and all your calculations must proceed on 
the ground that you have but to provide an instru¬ 
ment which will cooperate with an explosive agent. 

The New Testament ministry rests not on men¬ 
tal, emotional, or educational strength, but, using 
each of these as occasion may serve, finds its own 
power in a spiritual influence; and all reasoning 
applied to it, without being founded on this fact, 
is reasoning on the rifle upon principles belong¬ 
ing to the bow. 

The miraculous gifts impar^d to many in the 
early Church are carefully ranked and marked by 
the hand of the apostle as inferior to those gifts 
which were “ for edification, and exhortation, and 
comfort.” “And God hath set some in the 
Church, first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; 
thirdly, teachers; after that , miracles; then gifts 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO TTIE CHURCII. 217 

of healing, helps, governments, diversities of 
tongues.” (1 Cor. xii. 28.) Here miracle-work¬ 
ing, healing, and speaking with divers tongues, 
are set as inferior gifts to those whereby men 
were constituted teachers or prophets. A similai 
design is observed in Ephesians iv. 11: “And he 
gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and 
some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teach¬ 
ers.” Here we do not find any miraculous gifts 
even mentioned as part of the institution of Christ 
“ for the perfecting of the saints, for the work 
of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of 
Christto this—the true end of the ministry— 
the effects produced by miraculous gifts were only 
auxiliary. True, the apostles, prophets, and 
evangelists, as, indeed, also the pastors and teach¬ 
ers, possessed, and often exercised, miraculous 
gifts; but it was not by these they effected the 
‘ perfecting of the saints, the work of the minis¬ 
try, or the edifying of the body of Christ.” The 
essential point with regard to every one proposed 
for the sacred office is, to ascertain whether or 
not he is “ a man sent of God.” 

As the gift of the Spirit himself is represented 
as consequent upon the ascension of our Lord, 
so, in the passage in Ephesians to which we have 
just alluded, the institution of the ministry also 
19 


218 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


is represented as the result of his triumphant as* 
cension. “He ascended up on high, he led 
captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men;” 
and “He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets,” 
etc. These were the gifts which he, from his 
throne of mediation, bestowed on his Church— 
men endued with power by his Spirit, and also 
moved by the same Spirit to spend their lives in 
the work of the ministry for the edifying of the 
body of Christ. Whether we take the prophets 
under the old dispensation, or the Lord’s mes¬ 
sengers under the new, we find that the dis¬ 
tinctive characteristics of a true minister of God 
lay in a call and a qualification. The qualifica¬ 
tion involved a gift, a power, and a training. He 
who had a call from God, a gift from God, and 
a power from God, and he only, was ever prophet, 
evangelist, or pastor and teacher, in any scrip¬ 
tural sense. The training varied with the age, 
dispensation, and circumstances; but no training 
ever did or ever can make him a minister who 
has no call, no gifts, and no power sent upon his 
soul by the anointing of the eternal Spirit. 

The call presupposed grace, or the moral qualifi¬ 
cation, and implied a gift, or what may be called 
the mental qualification; for to call without im¬ 
parting a gift, would be leading an unarmed 
soldier into battle; and to call and gift an un- 


PERMANENT BENEEITS TO T1IE CHURCH. 219 


regenerate man, would be to commission and arm 
a rebel: these two, therefore, call and qualifica¬ 
tion, can never be looked upon as separable. 
“The love of Christ constraineth us,” is the 
language in which the apostle expresses that 
which is essential in the internal working of a 
call from God to spend and to be spent for the 
salvation of men; and he who, thus constrained 
by the love of Christ, finds himself possessed of 
a gift to speak to edification, or exhortation, or 
comfort, has, in that motion and in that faculty, 
strong evidence that the Lord is calling him into 
his vineyard. What he feels is not a mere de¬ 
sire to enter the ministry as a good and useful 
office, or to spend life in an honorable and happy 
vocation; but is a constraining movement of the 
love of Christ, as if issuing from his heart into the 
heart of his servant, and working there a strong 
impulse to cry out and labor for the recovery 
of Adam's lost children to the favor of their God 
and the rest of heaven. But, however strongly 
this desire may exist, if it be not accompanied 
with a gift for public teaching, that alone proves 
that the Lord has not designed the opera¬ 
tion of his love to constrain this particular in¬ 
dividual to the public labors of the ministry, but 
to other efforts for the same end. Him whom 
God sends to any work, he qualifies for that work. 


220 


THE TONGUE OE FIRE. 


A person feeling a true impulse to labor for 
Christ, and misjudging his own gift, may conceive 
himself to he called for the ministry when he is 
far from being qualified for it; and, on this point, 
the onus of judgment cannot properly be laid 
upon him, but must rest upon the Church. He, 
and he only, can judge as to the inward motive 
of his soul, whether or not his heart is moved by 
the Holy Ghost to undertake this work; and the 
fact that the responsibility of declaring that he 
believes himself to be so moved is thrown upon 
the candidate for the ministry by most Churches, 
if not by all, is a public and solemn testimony 
that the operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart 
is recognized as continuing to be the one basis 
of qualification for the ministry of the gospel. 
Only one’s own self can tell what has passed 
between the soul and its Saviour. No stranger 
intermeddleth with the question whether the 
Spirit has, or has not, in holy promptings, moved 
one to consecrate his life to the sole work of edi¬ 
fying and multiplying the flock of Christ. If 
any come to offer his hand to the Church for this 
high service, on his own soul it lies to say whether 
or not he is led by an impulse from on high, or 
by ordinary professional motives. 

The Church, nevertheless, has her responsibility; 
and before she seals the credentials of any, she is 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 221 

bound to take note whether the Lord himself has 
sealed them by the gifts of his Holy Spirit. As 
much as the responsibility lies on the individual 
of making or not making a solemn profession that 
he is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, does 
the responsibility lie upon the Church to see that 
he has all the corroborative marks of such a call. 
Those marks are grace, gifts, fruit. Hoes his 
whole life testify that he has felt the repentance 
to which he is to call sinners, exercised the faith 
to which he is to encourage penitents, and ex¬ 
perienced, in some degree, that sanctification to 
which he is to lead on believers ? If the evidence 
of this be not clear, the Church sins a grievous 
sin in accrediting him to the world as one quali¬ 
fied to “warn every man, and teach every man, 
that he may present every man perfect.” No cir¬ 
cumstance of time, age, nation, or aught else, can 
authorize any Church to dispense with the essen¬ 
tial qualification that he who is to be a minister 
of God shall first be a child of God. Any cre¬ 
dentials given without full proof of this, are pre¬ 
sumptuous and null. When our Lord was about 
to restore to his beloved disciple Peter the com¬ 
mission which his fall had seemed to forfeit, he 
puts to him the question, “ Lovest thou me ?” 
and thrice repeats it, searching him to the soul; 
19 * 


222 THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 

and, on the ground that he does love him, in* 
trusts him anew with the commission, “Feed my 
sheep.” No man whose true love to the Saviour 
is doubtful, who cannot appeal to Him who know- 
eth all things as witness that he does love him, 
has that qualification for a commission which is 
most indispensable of all—loyalty to the King. 

“ The same commit thou to faithful men.” 
“ Who is that faithful and wise steward whom 
the Lord will set over his house, to give to every 
man a portion of meat in due season ?” In both 
of these passages, as all through the word of God, 
the spiritual qualification is set as a consideration 
antecedent to that of gifts : first of all “ faithful;” 
but not merely “faithful.” “The same com¬ 
mit thou to faithful men, who shall he able to 
teach others also.” The steward is to be not 
only “ faithful,” but “ wise,” able to distribute 
to every one in due season. He who is not apt to 
teach, ought never to be commissioned as a teacher. 
The gifts of the Spirit are various. “ To one is 
given the word of wisdom, to another the word 
of knowledge, to another prophecy.” With re¬ 
gard to the servants of the Lord Christ, accord¬ 
ing to the gift of each, so let his sphere be. If 
“prophecy, let him prophesy according to the 
proportion of faith; or teaching, let him wait on 
his teaching j or he that exhorteth, on exhortation.” 



PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 223 

When, therefore, any one comes forward to 
offer himself as a laborer in the vineyard of the 
Lord, before he can be rightly assigned to any 
sphere, the question as to his spiritual character 
must be favorably decided, and then his sphere 
should be determined by his gifts. Which of 
the various gifts of the Holy Spirit have been 
conferred upon him ? If none of them, who dare 
say that he is to be a minister of God, and a 
teacher of the souls of men ? Surely this is not 
the Church of Christ, that is going to lay hands 
upon a man, of whom no one knows whether he has 
any gift whatever from God—a man whose voice has 
never been raised in exhortation, teaching, preach¬ 
ing, or public prayer, who has given no more 
evidence of gifts and fitness than a thousand 
others who make no pretensions to be fit—going 
to set such an one over hundreds of professed 
Christians as their teacher and pastor, as the 
leader of their devotions, and the only instructor 
of their souls! 

It is a manifest inversion of Christian order, 
when the commission of the Church is taken to 
be the authority to commence the exercise of spir¬ 
itual gifts. In the New Testament the Church’s 
only warrant for issuing her commission is the 
known possession of such gifts; and this can only 
be proved by their previous exercise. Her work 


224 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


was not to create gifts, but from among the gifted 
brethren to select those whom the Lord had, by 
his own will and act, previously fitted for special 
offices. The ordination of the Church to the min¬ 
istry was not a Christian’s first authority to preach 
Christ; for that, opportunity and ability were 
authority enough; but the special eminence and 
usefulness of some among the company of preach¬ 
ers was the Church’s warrant for separating them 
to the sole work of the ministry. If a commission 
from the Church be held to supply the place either 
of the Spirit’s constraining call, or of his qualify¬ 
ing gift, his office in perpetuating the ministry is 
superseded. To do this effectually, it is not 
necessary to blot from creeds the expressions of 
right belief, but only to adopt in practice such 
regulations as will enable men without grace, or 
without gifts, by the use of ordinary professional 
preparations, to obtain a commission, and stand 
up as accredited stewards of the mysteries of God. 

The operation of the Spirit in fitting the minis¬ 
ter for the work of God is seen, in the Old Tes¬ 
tament, in connection, not with the priestly office, 
but with that of the prophet. The former was a 
typical and temporary office, existing only as the 
precursor and type of the great High Priest, and 
terminating at once and for ever when He whom 
it foreshadowed had made his offering, and passed 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 225 

within the veil. The work of the priest was not 
to teach, edify, warn, and forewarn, but to be the 
medium of access to the presence of God on his 
mercy-seat. As such, he has no earthly succes¬ 
sor in Christianity: his office, w^repeat, ended 
for ever with the atonement and ascension of our 
Lord. Then came a change of the priesthood, 
that of Levi giving place to that of Melchisedec, 
which was vested, not in a succession of mutable 
men, but all in the Unchanging One, whose sac¬ 
rifice should never need repetition, whose years 
should never fail, and whose infinite tenderness 
should feel every infirmity of every suppliant. 

The office of the prophet was to warn, to re¬ 
prove, to rebuke, to exhort, as well as to foreshow. 
That office is not repeated in all its features in the 
Christian “ pastor and teacher,” but as to its 
essentials it is. Foretelling is the one function 
wherein the two differ; and that was appropriately 
the gift of an age in which revelation was incom¬ 
plete, and all the hopes of believers turned to a 
light yet unrisen. Indeed, it may be worth con¬ 
sidering whether the perpetuation of the fore¬ 
telling gift would not suppose an incomplete 
revelation, and whether the closing of the canon 
of revealed truth does not naturally carry with it 
the termination of that wonderful gift by which, 


226 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


from age to age, additions had been made to the 
previous stores of truth. 

When St. Paul urges upon us to desire, and, in¬ 
deed, to follow after, the “ spiritual gift” of 
prophecy, and^holds out the inducement which 
should lead us to covet it above all other gifts, he 
has not in his eye, and does not present to ours, 
the honor or the profit of foretelling. The only 
inducements he assigns are these: “He that 
prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and 
exhortation, and comfort.” “ I would that ye all 
spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophe¬ 
sied ; for greater is he that prophesieth than he 
that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, 
that the Church may receive edifying. ..... Put 
if all prophesy, and there come in one that be- 
lieveth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of 
all, he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets 
of his heart made manifest; and so, falling down 
on his face, he will worship God, and report that 
God is in you of a truth.” Thus, in the pas¬ 
sages where the apostle speaks most upon the 
Christian gift of prophecy, he makes no allusion 
to foretelling; and in the Acts of the Apostles we 
read that “ Judas and Silas, being prophets also 
themselves, exhorted the brethren with many 
words, and confirmed them.” We have no record 
anywhere of Silas foretelling, nor is there the 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCEL. 227 

least allusion to the exercise of such a gift; yet 
his exhortation and that of Jude, with their con¬ 
firming arguments or appeals, are at once set 
down as the exercise of the prophetic gift. 

The highest office of the Spirit in the prophet 
of the old dispensation was to enable him to see 
and to depict “ the sufferings of Christ, and the 
glory that should follow,” as though they were 
before his eye; and the highest office of the same 
Spirit in Grod's minister, in our day, is to enable 
him to descry, by an inner eye, the glories and 
the grace of a Lord whom he has never seen ; and 
to descant upon them as though his eye beheld 
him, and his ear were tingling with his voice. 
The same spiritual light which made a future 
Redeemer present to Isaiah, is needful to make a 
past Redeemer present to the Christian preacher. 
Without it, the one might have had an expecta¬ 
tion, and the other might have a belief; but 
neither could burn and melt as in the presence of 
a living, loving, redeeming Prince of peace. 
The spirit of prophecy illuminated the future to 
the one, and illuminates the past to the other— 
gave that which was a promise the force of a 
thing done, and gives that which is a record the 
force of a thing now doing. 

The difference, within the soul of a man, be¬ 
tween merely cherishing an expectation or a be- 


228 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


lief, and seeing, feeling, thrilling under the 
impression of a present Friend and Deliverer, 
makes in his utterance the difference between a 
tame declaration which disturbs neither prejudice 
nor indifference, and an overpowering force of 
speech that bears men’s hearts away. So far was 
the gift whereby the Spirit enabled the servants 
of Christ to speak as the oracles of God respect¬ 
ing the Master whom, though “ not having seen, 
they loved,” from being considered essentially 
different from that wherewith he had endued the 
ancient prophets, that the same name is freely 
applied to it, even when, as we have seen, the 
idea of foretelling is not included. 

However decided might be the evidence that 
an individual was a child of God, and had a gift, 
another element is ever kept in view as an attes¬ 
tation that he is truly commissioned from the 
Father—the power and anointing of the Holy 
One transfused throughout his preaching, and 
giving it a moral effect which ordinary speech, 
however wise, would never carry. “Not in word 
only,” however true and scriptural that word might 
be, “ but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and 
in much assurance.” “ The kingdom of God is 
not in word, but in power.” “ The preaching of 
the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 229 

unto us who are saved it is the power of God.” 
“ My speech and my preaching were not with en¬ 
ticing words of man’s wisdom, but with demon¬ 
stration of the Spirit and of power, that your 
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but 
in the power of God.” Here we see the most 
highly gifted of the apostles clearly recognizing 
the fact, that his success as an ambassador to 
sinful men lay not in the perfectness of his intel¬ 
lectual perceptions, nor in the mode in which he 
presented the truth to the intellectual view of 
those whom he addressed, but in a spiritual ele¬ 
ment of his preaching, as distinct from its intel¬ 
lectual characteristics as they were from its physi¬ 
cal elocution, and as necessary, in addition to the 
intellectual presentation of truth, as was the latter 
in addition to a rush of words. Without clear 
intellectual presentation of truth, any flow of words 
would fail to convince or to enlighten. With¬ 
out the spiritual power, any exposition or argu¬ 
ment would fail to awaken or regenerate. The 
work of Paul was nothing short of a commission 
to “ turn them from darkness to light, and from 
the power of Satan unto God, that they may 
receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance 
among them that are sanctified;” and this he 
knew would never be effected except by “power 
20 


230 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


and by the Holy Ghost/’ working in and through 
whatever truth he might utter as the bearer of 
God’s great message. 

Without this call from God, this gift from God, 
and this power from God, no one can be recog 
nized as, in the scriptural sense, an ambassador 
from God. To dispense with any one of these 
essentials in the qualification of a minister, is to 
introduce a radical change into the institution of 
the ministry itself, and to set it up on a basis for 
which there is no scriptural precedent. These 
essentials being secured, the training is varied 
according to circumstances. In the case of the 
apostles and the Seventy, after our Lord had called 
them under the promise that he would make them 
fishers of men, he retained them near his own 
person, continually instructing them in the oracles 
of God, giving them the highest example of teach¬ 
ing and of a holy life; and this training he con¬ 
tinued for three years. After the call of St. Paul, 
we find that three years elapsed before he came 
up to Jerusalem, which time he had spent in Ara¬ 
bia and Damascus, in what manner we are not 
informed, but probably in study of the Holy 
Scriptures, tending to give him a fuller acquaint¬ 
ance with the revelation of God in Christ. It is 
certain, however, that he was also exercising his 
gifts; for even in Damascus, immediately after his 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 231 

conversion, lie began to preach. The training of 
Apollos lay first in such light as he received as a 
disciple of John’s baptism, next in the exercise 
of his gifts, and then in the further instruction of 
Aquila and Priscilla. The training of Timothy 
lay in the early teaching of a holy mother and 
grandmother, the ordinary means of grace, study 
of the word of God, and then personal fellowship 
with the Apostle Paul and his fellow-laborers on 
their journeys and in their toils. Whatever spe¬ 
cial training individuals may have been favored 
with, that which was essential in the training was 
common to all; namely, instruction in the Holy 
Scriptures, the exercise of their gifts in religious 
assemblies either of the Church or of the syna- 
gogue, and the gradual development of those gifts, 
until fitness for the ministry was clearly proved. 

Whatever value general education may have 
held in the eyes of our blessed Lord, or of the 
anointing Spirit, it is plain that even the apostles, 
in the height and glory of their pentecostal preach¬ 
ing, were not gifted with any power which would 
cover the provincial peculiarities of their speech, 
or enable them to conciliate the refined by grace¬ 
ful enunciation. The educated ears of the Scribes 
of Jerusalem at once recognized, in the workers 
of miracles and the teachers of an increasing 
Church, “unlearned and ignorant men.” But, as 


232 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


we noticed before, their want of learning related 
only to matters of polite education, not to the deep 
things of the word of God, the doctrines, facts, 
and promises of which they were commissioned to 
expound to the world. The general education of 
Luke and Paul was gained with a view to general 
purposes, and turned to the service of the Church 
by the grace which converted them. 

We now come to the simple question, Are the 
call, the gift, the power, and the training of the 
Christian minister to continue to the end of time, 
as to essentials, the same as in the apostolic age? 
Are we to expect identity, in these particulars, 
between the ministry of our day and that of the 
first century; 'or dispensing with this, are we to 
be contented simply with a lineal conneotion ? To 
put out of sight the scriptural precedents and es¬ 
sentials of ministerial qualification, to give up the 
spiritual identity of the ministry, and be satisfied 
with a lineal connection, is a lamentable abandon¬ 
ment of the Church’s hope. If she do not obtain 
for the sacred office a succession of men able to 
teach, and endued with the Holy Ghost, she can¬ 
not preserve to herself, or transmit to future ages, 
the primitive and apostolic ministry. Though all 
the appendages of the office be preserved, if the 
spiritual essentials of the minister be lost, the pith 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 233 

and sap of the ancient tree are gone, though the 
bark and foliage may survive. It is for the Church 
to see that unequivocal signs of grace, and gifts, 
and fruitfulness, mark out every candidate for the 
sacred office as one chosen of the Lord; and not 
to accept instead of these any substitute whatever, 
whether it be his own profession, or some qualifi¬ 
cations supposed to replace the primitive ones. 

Though no one formally professes that the Chris¬ 
tian ministry has become a totally different insti¬ 
tution from that which Christ founded—different 
in the qualification it requires, in the mode of in¬ 
duction, and in the source and fruit of its efficacy 
—yet all this is assumed in the current writings 
and thoughts of many, and the assumption is 
wrought into the framework and usages of differ¬ 
ent Churches. For a call of God, delivered by 
the voice of the Holy Ghost, in the silence of a 
believing heart, and manifested by earnest efforts 
to save souls and to promote holy works, a formal 
commission from ecclesiastical authorities is relied 
upon. Instead of a gift from God—a gift of sa¬ 
cred and impressive speech, a “tongue of fire”— 
we have substituted a ritual; instead of a scrip¬ 
tural training, a high education; and instead of a 
power from God, some substitute intellectualism, 
and others propriety. 

20 * 


234 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


We are very far from decrying these things in 
their right place. The commission is good and 
needful as the Church’s seal and recognition of 
the Lord’s call, but ridiculous and self-contradic¬ 
tory as a substitute for it. Learning is invaluable 
when associated with and adorning gifts from God, 
but lower than pitiable when offered as a substitute 
for the power of opening and enforcing the Divine 
oracles. Propriety, intellectualism, and ritual, 
have their honorable place; but when, instead of 
the power which penetrates the soul, we have only 
ceremony which fascinates the taste, or talent 
which regales the intellect, then are we fallen from 
the region of Divine to that of human things, 
brought down from “the power of God” to “the 
wisdom of man.” 

For this substitution different classes are to be 
blamed: Church authorities, chiefly for covering 
the want of a call and a gift from God by a com¬ 
mission from man; and the multitude of professed 
Christians, chiefly for coveting not so much spirit¬ 
ual power, as propriety or intellectualism. Did 
the former adhere to the primitive idea of the 
ministry, they would no more commission, as a 
minister of God, a man who had not given proof, 
first of sincere godliness, and then of ministerial 
gifts, than would any naval Board accredit a man 
as a pilot who had studied navigation and charts, 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 235 

but bad never sailed the particular channel on 
which he was to be intrusted with valuable lives; 
or than would any medical Board give a surgeon’s 
diploma to a man who had read and heard lectures, 
but had never been in a hospital, or. dealt with an 
actual patient. To substitute education for the 
ministerial gift (even when grace is possessed) is, 
in fact, to set aside the question, Is this man called 
of God? And to substitute it for evidences of 
grace, (even when gifts are possessed,) is equally 
to set that question aside. True, it may be still 
retained in words; but if that is done, and yet, 
without proof of both gifts and grace, a man be 
inducted into the ministry upon the simple evi¬ 
dence of education, the question is deliberately 
evaded, and the sin of falsifying Christ’s own in¬ 
stitution is not mitigated by the plea of forgetful¬ 
ness, much less of ignorance; but, with both 
knowledge and memory of what it originally was, 
another thing, differing from it in the first and 
most essential qualities, is hailed by its name and 
invested with its functions. 

To constitute a Christian, three things are ne¬ 
cessary—faith, experience, and practice : to con¬ 
stitute a minister, four—faith, experience, prac¬ 
tice, and gifts. Without experience, knowledge 
or belief can no more qualify a man to teach 
heart repentance, and heart faith, and heart holi- 




236 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


ness, than book knowledge, whatever might he 
its amount, would qualify a man to train soldiers, 
if he had never himself passed through the pro¬ 
cess of military discipline. Without gifts, edu¬ 
cation and experience would be together as insuf¬ 
ficient a qualification as if a soldier had ammuni¬ 
tion and discipline, without weapons. 

It is difficult to describe the evil done, when 
the Church overlays the essential qualification and 
training of the primitive ministry by exalting 
substitutes for the active power of the Holy Spi¬ 
rit, and when she further sets before all men a 
profession with high prizes, the door to which will 
infallibly be opened by a certain course of edu¬ 
cation, unless they disgrace themselves, and thus 
allures them to make sacred professions from sec¬ 
ular motives. On each individual who makes such 
professions without due care the guilt of volun¬ 
tarily sinning must for ever lie; but how far has 
the Church been his tempter, when she makes 
overtures to him irrespective of qualifications 
which are clearly laid down in the Word of God, 
as those only which attest the Divine sanction and 
call? 

It may be asked whether we are to expect that 
in all ages a sufficient number of men will be 
raised up, bearing the primitive marks of a call 
from God, and of gifts from God; and our reply 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 237 

would be, simply, Remember the ten days. 
There we see men whose commission had come 
from the lips of the Lord Jesus; whose training 
had been under his own eye; who have forsaken 
houses, and lands, and all that could bind them 
to secular avocations; who are ready to set forth 
upon the work of calling and warning a world 
that is “ lying in the wicked one •” and yet day 
after day the inhibition lies upon them, that they 
are to tarry until they are endued with power 
from on high. As we look at that spectacle—sin¬ 
ners dying, time rolling on, the Master looking 
down from his newly-ascended throne on the 
world which he has redeemed, seeing death bear 
away its thousands while his servants keep silence 
—there is in that silence a tone which booms 
through all the future, warning us that never, 
never, under the dispensation of the Spirit, are 
men to set out upon the embassy of Christ, be their 
qualifications or credentials what they may, until 
first they have been endued with power from on 
high, been baptized with tongues of fire. Better 
let the Church wait ever so long—better let the 
ordinances of God’s house be without perfunctory 
actors, and all, feeling sore need, be forced to cry 
with special urgency for fresh outpourings and 
baptisms of the Holy Ghost, to raise up holy min¬ 
isters, than that, by any manner of factitious sup- 


238 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


ply, substitutes should be furnished—substitutes 
no more ministers of God than coals arranged in 
a grate are a fire; or than a golden candlestick , 
with a wax candle, which flame has never touched, 
is a light. 

If it was the original design of the Lord to 
withdraw from the Church the ministerial grace 
of the Spirit, and to leave her to the care of pas¬ 
tors, all whose qualifications were natural, or 
gained by natural acquisition, all whose authority 
was derived from human commission, without any 
“ manifestation of the Spirit,” either in gifts or 
moral power, it was clearly his purpose that his 
religion should essentially change its character, 
after its establishment in the world. This 
change, also, would be not in the direction of 
improvement, but of degeneracy; not by progres¬ 
sive increase of communication with his redeemed 
flock, but by progressive increase of distance be¬ 
tween it and him; not by bringing earthly things 
nearer to heavenly, but by removing them farther 
away. It would imply a design, on his part, tc 
reduce the Christian dispensation lower, as tc 
ministerial grace, than even the Jewish; for in 
it the prophetic spirit was constantly giving man¬ 
ifestation that there was a God in Israel: not 
merely that there was truth, order, priesthood, a 
Church, but a God, a living Being, high, holy, 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 239 

and wise, who dwelt amid the people, and actively 
moved, through his servants, for the instruction; 
reproof, and holiness of all; “ rising up early and 
sending” messenger after messenger. It would, 
in fact, imply, that while the dispensation of the 
gospel was the most favored as to truth, it would 
be the least favored as to tokens of actual inter¬ 
course between the Saviour and his people; for 
even the days of the patriarchs were lighted with 
frequent manifestations of God. It is laid down 
as the principle of our dispensation, that the man¬ 
ifestations of God are to be by the operation and 
gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is, therefore, con- 
i sistent Christianity to expect no supernatural 
manifestations but of this kind. But is it con¬ 
sistent Christianity, or Christianity of any kind, 
not to expect these at all; not to count upon di¬ 
rect gifts from above, upon such wonderful work¬ 
ing of the Spirit through the mind and tongue 
of messengers, as would compel all to feel that 
their endowments were not from nature only, but 
were indicative of Divine power ? 

If it be not alleged that the Lord did indeed 
mean to withdraw ministerial grace, in every ap¬ 
preciable and practical form, on what other ground 
can the notion that the ministry is to be supplied 
by candidates, just as any other profession is sup¬ 
plied, be rested ? and all that is necessary is, that 




240 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


fathers should decide that their sons are to be 
ministers, and not soldiers or lawyers ; and should 
educate them; that then, after an examination in 
general knowledge and theology, the candidate 
shall be invested with an office which professes to 
be held by commission from God ! On what 
other ground can one avoid the conclusion, that 
the first movement toward placing any one in the 
ministry, should result from proof given that the 
Holy Spirit had endued him with pastoral dispo¬ 
sitions and pastoral gifts; and that every subse¬ 
quent step in the same direction should be taken 
carefully, after confirmatory evidences of the 
same ? 

It is easy to say that we must not expect such 
clear cases to occur constantly; and must follow 
some definite mode of preparation. Yes, we must 
follow some definite mode ; but defined on princi¬ 
ples of faith, not of unbelief. “We must not 
expect a constant occurrence of clear cases !” 
On what principles must we not? On those of 
the New Testament, or of modern writers ? On 
those of the Church in the apostolic age, or of 
subsequent and degenerate ages ? On those of 
Christ’s uncorrupted Christianity, or those of 
fallen Churches ? On the principle of “ I believe 
in the Holy Ghost,” or on the principle of 
“I believe only in nature?” 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 241 

The definite mode of perpetuating the supply 
of ministers should rest on the sole foundation 
of the Christian faith, rejecting every idea of dis¬ 
trust as resolutely as a chemist would reject every 
idea of inconstancy in the affinities of elements; 
rejecting every idea of substituting other action 
for that of the Holy Spirit as decisively as a gun¬ 
ner would reject the idea of aiding his explosion 
with mechanical force. If we have not the Spirit 
to raise up agents, we cannot preserve Christ’s 
Church alive; if we have him, we may fully 
trust him to do all that is not made to depend on 
our own fidelity. To doubt the supply of sum¬ 
mer heat, and to set ourselves to rear harvests in 
hot-beds, would not be doing more violence to 
the laws of the physical kingdom, than it is to 
the laws of the spiritual kingdom to doubt the 
supply of the Spirit whereby laborers fit for the 
field are raised up, and to set ourselves to furnish 
others. 

Firm in faith, the Church ought to set at the 
very entrance of the pathway toward the minis- 
try, a gate which no family influence, no educa¬ 
tion could open; which none could pass but they 
whom a number of serious and godly men—not 
ministers alone, but also laymen, who had to hear, 
and feed, or starve, according to the quality of 
21 


242 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


the ministrations—would deliberately conclude 
were worthy, at least, to be admitted to probation 
for the work of the ministry. Such a gate none 
could pass but one who was either in earnest, or 
a studious and practiced hypocrite. 

Where the primitive training is maintained, 
all the members of the Church exercise such 
gifts as the Spirit has distributed to them— 
prayer, and exhortation, and teaching, and mu¬ 
tual speaking one to another, and admonishing 
one another. Among the working believers of 
such a scriptural Church, a suitable proportion 
will ever be raised up whose gifts will fit them to 
lead in all the offices. This is the real training- 
school for Christian agents : a fruitful Church is 
her own nursery. Meetings for fellowship of 
saints, for free-hearted prayer, for exhortation, 
are the legitimate means by which they whom the 
Lord is fitting for his high ministry shall be led 
to the development of their gifts. This training 
must be held as indispensable, and of an essen¬ 
tial importance, with which no other training has 
any pretence to claim a comparison; and then 
general education must be held to have the same 
relation to the Christian ministry as a general 
education has to any other profession; and theo¬ 
logical education the same as special education 
has to the other professions. 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 248 

Classics and mathematics, history and logic, are 
of admirable use to a lawyer; hut if, qualified by 
these, he is to attempt to conduct cases without 
having been specially trained in pleading, alas for 
his clients! They are of great use to a physi¬ 
cian ; but if, by their light, and without study 
of diseases and remedies, he undertake to heal, 
alas for the families which put precious life in his 
trust! To a minister their value is quite as great 
as to either of the others; but study of theology 
is as indispensable to him as study of law or 
medicine to them ; and practical experience of 
that repentance, faith, and holiness which he is 
to enforce, is as necessary as practical treatment 
of disease in addition to study; or as practical 
acquaintance with a ship at sea is needful for a 
mariner, in addition to the science of navigation. 

Were we forced to choose between two men, 
one of whom is an accomplished scholar, without 
practical godliness, the other a holy and gifted 
man, without refined scholarship: to ask us the 
question, which we should prefer for our minis¬ 
ter, is about as respectful to our faith as Chris¬ 
tians, as it would be respectful to the common 
sense of a ship-owner, soberly to ask whether he 
preferred, as a pilot for his ships, a scholar from 
a nautical academy who had never walked a deck, 
or a rough sailor who had often sailed the very 


244 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


waters over which the precious freight must he 
conveyed. Alas for those whose souls are watched 
over by unconverted scholars ! And even if con¬ 
verted and gifted, the minister of Christ should 
not come to his office without having been prac¬ 
ticed in prayer, in exhortation, in preaching, in 
all the art of healing souls, and that not in books 
only, not in schools only, but also in the lively 
meetings and labors of the Church. 

We not only acknowledge, but gratefully be¬ 
lieve and record, that many of those who had 
been invested with the ministry without sufficient 
test of their fitness, have, in the event, become 
burning and shining lights. But if this, on the 
one hand, deserves to be continually remembered 
as a proof of God’s tender mercy to his Church, 
it is, on the other hand, not less to be noted, that 
he has ordinarily allowed such unauthorized ap¬ 
pointments to be followed by their natural conse¬ 
quences, until whole nations have come under the 
curse of a ministry who either taught another 
gospel than that of the apostles, or who, per¬ 
functorily exhibiting the shell of the truth, set 
the example of denying its power; and that even 
where the Church had been reformed, although 
primitive Christianity had not been generally re¬ 
vived. What England was a century ago—what 
many Protestant Churches on the Continent are 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 245 

at this moment—sufficiently shows that if guards 
are not placed at the entrance to the ministry, 
such as will hinder the admission of any but 
spiritually-minded men, the course of Providence 
is to allow the sin to work out its own punish¬ 
ment. 

While ecclesiastical authorities may be justly 
blamed for too readily substituting a Church com¬ 
mission for the genuine call and gift of God, the 
multitude of professed Christians are no less 
ready to accept, instead of the genuine moral 
power which is the true preeminence of the 
Christian minister, a substitute in either pro¬ 
priety or intellectualism. A people whose idea 
of the ministry was formed by inspirations from 
the New Testament, would look and crave, with 
feelings amounting to hunger and thirst, for men 
u endued with power”—the true power of the 
Holy Ghost, awakening, converting, edifying 
power : power under which hearts would melt, 
lives would change, old men would put off the 
evil ways of a lifetime, and youth put on the wis¬ 
dom of gray hairs; thoughtless revelry would 
give place to benevolent associations, and the 
whole neighborhood begin to breathe a purer and 
a nobler spirit. Nothing could to them compen- 
21 * 


246 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


sate for the absence of this. Though all pro¬ 
prieties gratified the taste, though the intellect 
were charmed, yet would they pine and long for 
that power which lies beyond the ken of the eye, 
the taste, or the intellect; but which the moral 
nature at once feels and responds to, either by a 
stern moral resistance, felt to be a resistance to 
the voice of the Spirit, or by contrite acquies¬ 
cence, felt to be the surrender of the heart to the 
constraining love of the Redeemer. 

“Ye shall be endued,” said our Lord, “with 
power from on high”—robed with power. This 
is the true robing and vestment of the minister 
of God — an invisible garment of power, which 
sits not upon his shoulders, but upon his spirit, 
shading him over with a moral dignity, as if he 
held office from the King of kings, and convey¬ 
ing to every conscience before him the instinctive 
perception that he comes commissioned to deal 
with it on the things that affect its purity, and 
its relations with Him who planted it in man. 

All power is indescribable, but at the same 
time appreciable. What it is, where it is, how 
it came, where it goes, its measure, movement, 
nature, form, or essence, no human skill can dis¬ 
cover. We may ask the sunbeam, which has 
such power to fly and to illuminate; the lightning, 
which has such power to scathe; the dew-drop, 


PERMANENT BENEEITS TO THE CHURCH. 247 

that has power to refresh: the magnet, the fire, 
the steam, the eye that can see, the ear that can 
hear, the nerve that can convey the messages of 
will—we may ask all the agents we see exerting 
power to render us an account each of its own 
power, and all will be dumb. Not the cannon¬ 
ball on its flight, or the lion in his triumph; not 
the tempest, or the sea; not even pestilence it¬ 
self, can tell us what is power. If we ask Death, 
who has put all things under his feet, even he has 
no reply; and after we have passed the question, 
“What is power?” round a mute universe, we 
must say, “ God has spoken once, yea, twice 
have I heard this, that power belongeth unto 
God.” 

Yet power, in itself so hidden and indescribable, 
is ever manifest by its effects. An effect demon¬ 
strates the presence of a power. Where gun¬ 
powder explodes, there must have been fire; 
where water shoots up through the atmosphere in 
steam, there must have been heat; where iron 
moves without mechanical force, a magnet must 
be; and the absence of the effect is conclusive 
evidence of the absence of the power from which 
the effect would have followed. The intellect at 
once recognizes the presence of intellectual power. 
The emotions, also, faithfully tell whenever an 
emotional power is brought to bear upon them; 


248 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


and no less surely does tlie conscience of a mail 
feel when a moral power comes acting upon it. 

In unconverted men a singular conflict goes on : 
they share the admiration which every man feels 
for moral power—an admiration which none can 
help feeling, even though he be so wedded to his 
sins that he is lashed into enmity when the action 
of such a power makes him fear that, after all, 
he will be converted into a saint; yet this feel¬ 
ing is combated by the natural aversion which 
men have for every thing that crosses their 
earthly inclinations, and tends to lead their affec¬ 
tions to holy things. On the one hand, they 
feel that the man who preaches to them ought to 
be able to disturb them in their evil ways, as by 
a voice and a call from their Maker; and they 
are drawn toward him who has this character. 
On the other hand, they desire to continue longer 
in worldly ways; and it is comfortable to them, 
and welcome, when, instead of a trumpet-peal 
which would break their slumbers, they hear a 
pleasant song that will help them to sleep on. 
With the great majority these latter feelings pre¬ 
vail, and, according as their own inclinations and 
training lead, they seek in the public ordinances 
of God’s house either what they call an intel- 



PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 249 

tactual treat, or what they consider a well-per¬ 
formed and creditable solemnity. 

With one class, the highest ideal of a Chris¬ 
tian service seems to be, that nothing should 
pass that could, by any possibility, offend the 
taste of any human being who might look upon 
the whole scene as an assembly for some dignified 
purpose. As to the pulpit, their great desire is 
that the pulpit should 11 behave itself;” and in 
this country of ours many a service may be found 
which is 

“Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null.” 
That is, “ faultless” in such eyes—“ faultless,” 
if the idea of a Christian service be not a scene 
of penitence, fervent prayer, bursting adoration; 
a triumph of spiritual power; an assembly the 
atmosphere of which breathes of living souls and 
the present Spirit of God, of transgressors awaken¬ 
ing, and penitents finding mercy, and saints 
standing truly nigh to the countenance of their 
Father; but, instead of all this, a number of 
well-dressed people decorously meeting, and cele¬ 
brating something that affects no one, and coolly 
listening to something not formed to affect any 
one, and, above all, not formed to offend any man, 
except him who wants to feel his own soul, and 
see the souls of his neighbors, moved to their 
depths as by a call from above! 


250 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


The sanctuary of God ought, undoubtedly, to 
be the highest scene and model of propriety; the 
pulpit to be its foremost and most shining ex¬ 
ample. He who, under any pretext, introduces 
trifling, oddity, or coarseness there, strikes fear¬ 
fully at a main support of power—true reverence. 
However offensive want of propriety may be else¬ 
where, it is doubly so in the house of God. 
But the united praying of Christians, the deliver¬ 
ing of a message from above, and the mingling 
of thankful voices in praise to the Most High, 
like all other peculiar actions, have a propriety 
of their own; and of all improprieties, none is 
more thoroughly alien to them than that, be it 
what it may—whether stiff form or elaborate lite¬ 
rature—which gives to the place a savor rather 
of the wisdom of man than of the power of God. 
At a marriage-feast the solemnity proper to a 
funeral would be an impropriety. In a company 
of friends the precision of military movement 
would be improper. The noise of instruments is 
propriety in a concert; the sound of grinding, in 
a mill; the clatter of shuttles, in a factory; the 
ring of hammers, in a forge; the laughter of 
children, in a nursery. 

And so the house of God has its own atmo¬ 
sphere : whatever would extinguish the reverent 
utterance of penitent or grateful emotion on the 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 251 

part of the simple and the poor, of the newly 
awakened or newly forgiven; whatever would 
train all Christian feelings to move there, in God’s 
own house and in the assembly of his people, as 
if under the cold eye of a heathen world, is a 
more crying impropriety than those departures 
from taste which not only might flow, but must 
flow, from the utterance of feelings, where any 
multitude, composed of all classes, is deeply 
affected. When the noble idea of Christian pro¬ 
priety gives place to the paltry idea of proper¬ 
ness ; when intense reverence and love and joy, 
meeting and stirring the breasts of a multitude, 
are distasted, and men are set on having every 
thing square, well cut, and arranged beforehand, 
then we have little right to expect the highest 
of all proprieties—the breaking of sinful hearts 
as if in pieces under the hammer of God’s word, 
and the cry of awakened sinners, “What must 
we do to be saved ?” In fact, many who call 
themselves Christians, and whose claim we readily 
allow, would regard the utterance of such a cry 
in the house of God as not less improper than if 
raised in a theatre. The people may say “Amen,” 
if it be just by rule: may murmur a response, 
if just where good men, long since dead, marked, 
“Respond here;” but any thing like the pente- 
costal scene—any general outburst of penitent 


252 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE 


emotion—would be intolerable; and even to see a 
solitary man, “ unlearned and unbelieving,” feel¬ 
ing himself judged and condemned, and “ falling 
down upon his face and worshipping God,” 
would be a disturbance of propriety, forsooth, 
because it would make a fracture in that icy 
properness wherein a long continuance of cold 
has encased many a branch of Christ’s Church. 
Yet this scene is just as proper to the house of 
God as the crash of a falling tree is to the forest 
where the woodman is clearing. 

A class very different from those who worship 
properness, set up intellectualism as the sub¬ 
stitute for power. "We are far from wishing in 
any way to undervalue that great gift of God, 
mental power. Some measure of this is always 
implied in the commission to preach the gospel; 
and the more of sense, pathos, imagination, of any 
real talent, that a minister may possess, the 
more is he fitted to give his office effect. The 
talk in which some good people indulge as to the 
great benefit of having weak instruments in the 
ministry, is without a tittle of scriptural founda¬ 
tion, the Scriptures being fairly applied to the case. 

It is true that, to the wise of this world, the 
cross in itself is “ foolishnessbut Christ never 
sent fools to be its heralds. The institution of 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 253 

preaching, as the means for regenerating man¬ 
kind, is in itself “ foolishness ;” but none of the 
preachers sent of God were simpletons. Though 
they were despised by the great, and were of no 
account with the learned, every one of them was 
mighty through God to strike home to the con¬ 
sciences of sinners, and to confound gainsayers; 
the evidence of Diviue power working with them 
being all the more conspicuous by reason of their 
natural or educational defects. Men who have 
no gift to teach, warn, or exhort, ought to 
betake themselves to whatever honest calling their 
Maker has fitted them to fulfil, and not pule about 
the Lord delighting to use foolish instruments, 
while every day proves that he is in no way using 
them , unless it be as an example to all not to as¬ 
sume an office without having proved their fit¬ 
ness. The men whom God sends may be with¬ 
out the accomplishments of scholars, but never 
without sense and utterance. They may be des¬ 
titute of the talent which would enable them to 
treat secular subjects with oratorical or literary 
success—to allure the fancy, or exhilarate the 
emotions; to satisfy by logic, or illuminate by 
exposition; but never, never without power to 
act upon the conscience; and this, in the ab¬ 
sence of other endowments, is often at once the 
22 



254 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE 


sceptre of a preacher’s command, and the mys¬ 
terious seal of his commission. 

He who speaks to us in the name of our God 
may bring statement as lucid and nervous as that 
of Moses or Matthew, wisdom as racy as that of 
Solomon, pathos as overwhelming as that of Jere- 
miah or John, argument as cogent as that of 
Paul, or imagination as gorgeous as that of David 
or Isaiah; any powers, however lofty, may he 
bring—any eloquence, however poetic, refined, 
or bold; only let him make us feel, as we always 
do under the hand of the prophets and the apos¬ 
tles, that all his powers are put in operation but 
to bring us nearer to our Redeemer. 

Where the notion that the talent employed in 
Christian preaching ought to lie within a limited 
and humble range, without any high flights, any 
deep soundings, any glowing language, any meta¬ 
phorical illustrations, or any masculine argument, 
can have originated, one would be at a loss to 
learn, were the Bible alone—Old Testament and 
New—the source of our information. There we 
see the power of the Holy Spirit, not allying it¬ 
self with one order of mind, or with one stamp of 
composition, tamed down to a standard of proper¬ 
ness, consecrated by the aesthetics of some small 
and proper men, but using every faculty that God 
ever gave to the human soul—every faculty of 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 255 

thought, illustration, and speech—hallowing by its 
fire all genius, all life, and all nature, touching 
every thing and illuminating every thing; so that 
there is not one scene of domestic life, and not 
one object of God’s outer world, to which the 
tongue of psalmist or prophet, or the Great Teacher 
himself, has not given a voice, and made it speak 
to us in sacred poetry. From the grass beneath 
the mower’s scythe, or the lily that a child has 
plucked—from the bridegroom’s beaming face, or 
nursing-mother’s bosom, up to the lightning, the 
sun, and the stars, every thing is hallowed by a 
ray from the Bible, and is hung round by its sa¬ 
cred associations. 

We cannot but believe that this is the inten¬ 
tional model, and that men of all orders, with 
talent of every possible shade, are meant to be 
employed in God’s holy ministry; and that, there¬ 
fore, any narrower view, founded either upon the 
ideal of some prominent example in one class of 
preaching, on the taste of a given age, or on any 
notion whatever of classic style and propriety, is 
but an invention to cramp and trammel that which 
must everlastingly be free—the utterance of men 
who come to speak to us of all things infinite. 

On the other hand, that which now-a-days is 
called intelleetualism does not appear so much to 


256 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


lie in the possession and exercise of superior powers 
as in the art of casting common things in elaborate 
moulds, and robing every familiar truth which, in 
a plain garb, all would recognize as an old friend, 
in such array that those who do not look closely 
may take it for a distinguished stranger. It is 
true that thoughts which outgrow the ordinary 
stature will naturally drape themselves nobly; 
but all diaze or extravagance, in the style of wise 
men, will be in spite of themselves. They will 
ever use their best endeavors, first to clear their 
ideas in their own minds, and then to render 
them clear to others. Often they will expend 
much labor in reducing what gushed from their 
pregnant thoughts from its original splendor to 
something more simple and perspicuous—some¬ 
thing perhaps less calculated to dazzle, but more 
calculated to enlighten. 

Some intellects are, among ordinary ones, what 
a hothouse is in a garden—a special shrine which 
receives the beams of heaven, through a medium 
of crystal, into an atmosphere of high temperature, 
within which bloom fruits and flowers that would 
not grow in the ordinary ground, fruits and flow¬ 
ers from brighter lands, and wondrous in our eyes; 
which, however, though at first nursed there, may, 
in time, be naturalized, and become familiar beau¬ 
ties in the homesteads of thousands. It is mani- 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 257 

festly the will of Providence to create such intel¬ 
lects; and even had we not the Bible to throw light 
on his design, it would certainly seem violently 
improbable that he should create them only to 
fringe with flowers the world’s broad and down¬ 
ward way. Some men always treat richness of 
style as if it were the result of effort; just as if 
deal, which always owes its color to art, were tc 
say to mahogany, or maple, or rosewood, “ What 
labor it must have been to produce all these shad¬ 
ings!” No labor whatever: it is all in the grain. 

At the same time, the intellectualism of our 
day is something so entirely apart from the exer¬ 
cise of power of mind, that it seems to us more 
like an attempt to invent great intellects, than 
like an honest endeavor to put out to the best ac¬ 
count such intellect as God has given. The use 
of factitious power is to make common things loom 
up in misty grandeur, and the use of real power 
is to make strong, new, rare, or vast conceptions 
clear to the ordinary eye, or to bring what ap¬ 
peared cold intellectual abstractions home to the 
common heart. If viewed only as a specimen of 
natural power, how wonderful the effect of that 
one stroke by which the simplest man in Chris¬ 
tendom, from the time of our Lord down to this 
day, has been enabled to see in the fair drapery 
22 * 


258 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


of a lily a pledge of providential care for his clo¬ 
thing, and to hea,r in the glee-chirp of a sparrow 
a pledge of the same care in feeding him and his 
children! Whatever is used with a view to clear 
Divine truth to men’s conceptions, to enforce Divine 
law on the conscience, or to commend Divine love 
to their hearts, that will the Spirit work with and 
quicken • but whatever is used merely to excite 
surprise or admiration at the powers of the speaker, 
must be forsaken by that sacred Power which 
moves, never to glorify one man in the eye of an¬ 
other, but to reveal the things of God to his wan¬ 
dering creatures. 

It is very probable that not a few deceive them¬ 
selves by Burke’s idea of sublimity, to the effect 
that a clear idea is but another name for a little 
idea: a notion which he supports by quoting the 
vision of Eliphaz, and ascribing the sense of the 
sublime which that description at once conveys, 
to the haze and mystery wherewith the subject is 
invested. But he loses sight of the cardinal fact, 
that the mystery lies not in the medium, but in 
the object. In language clear as the light of hea¬ 
ven, that object is presented to the mind; and, 
gazing through that pure and illuminated medium, 
we see what can be seen of the object. That is 
only enough to tell us that it is no ordinary thing, 
but some mysterious being, an index of a whole 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 259 

•world of invisible spirits; and this it is which car* 
ries with it the idea of the awful and infinite, and, 
therefore, of the sublime. Had he said that com¬ 
plete comprehension in our mind argued a finite 
object, he would undoubtedly have been correct; 
but in order that our impression of the infinity of 
an object may be deep, some token of infinity must 
be clear. 

Let those, then, who would wield a power over 
us present to our minds objects so great, if they 
will, that we can only catch a glimpse of some 
lower or hinder part, but let that glimpse be such 
as to convey to us an intimation of the whole as 
clearly as any stray flash of morning light carries 
with it the whole idea of sun and sky. Let their 
great thoughts be robed in any language, however 
simple or however gorgeous, provided only that it 
be clear, that the medium obscure not our view 
of the object to be seen, and so confuse our sense 
either of its nature or dimensions; and provided 
also it be plain that their ruling idea is not a lit¬ 
erary but a religious one; not to “acquit them¬ 
selves well,” and please their audience, but to 
produce instant and lasting religious impressions. 
Let them bring before our souls the heights, the 
depths, the lengths, the breadths of God’s re¬ 
vealed glories; and, whether they be plain in 
style as the homeliest peasant who passes our 


260 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


door, without one poetic idea in his mind, or one 
poetic phrase in his vocabulary, except those that 
his Bible has given to him—and many such plain 
men will ever be employed in the most eminent 
and glorious works of God—or whether all their 
expressions have the glow of superhuman fervor, 
or the lustre of superhuman imagination, rivalling, 
in its wealth of imagery, in its purple, its scarlet, 
its gold, its precious stones, its frankincense, and 
its myrrh, the prophets of old, they will produce 
upon us healthy effects, will feed our spirits with 
angels’ food, or enamor our contemplations with 
God’s providence, his work of grace, or his eter¬ 
nal mansions provided for those who love him. 

We repeat it, that it is not from any peculiar 
style, whether it be extreme plainness, or high 
elaboration, or what else, that we expect the min¬ 
istry to acquire a world-renewing power. Let 
the style be ruled by every man’s natural endow¬ 
ments; but, whatever these be, let them all be 
employed in the one direction of carrying out an 
embassy from God to the souls of sinful men. 
The greater the variety of talent and of style, 
the more will the pulpit be like the Bible—the 
more effectually will its work be done; but let no 
form of talent be ever accepted instead of power. 
For we must have power—power which the godly 
will welcome as meet to minister grace to the 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 261 

hearers—power which the ungodly will fear as 
certain to make them uncomfortable in their sins, 
or else force them to harden their hearts, as if 
they were refusing the voice of God. 

Take away from the minister spiritual power, 
and, though you give us the fairest deportment, 
the richest eloquence, the most subtile and fasci¬ 
nating speculation, you leave us without any sense 
that we are hearkening to a man of God. Did 
the multitudes of the Christian Church only set 
a due estimate upon this, and rank propriety and 
intellectualism in their proper place, the idea that 
a man could pass creditably as a minister merely 
by carefully performing a ceremony, or by weav¬ 
ing webs of curious and cunning language, would 
be as far from men’s minds as is now the idea 
that one can obtain credit as a soldier without 
courage, as a painter without skill of hand, or as 
a musician without an instinct of tune. 

The lowest effect (for less is no effect at all, or 
a negative one) which a Christian minister can 
produce, is merely to please his audience; next 
to that ranks astonishing them ; for both of these 
effects terminate in himself; and when a certain 
amount of admiration has been expended upon 
him, the whole harvest of his labor is reaped—a 
poor and scanty harvest, sufficing only to pass 
over the present hour, but yielding no seed for 


262 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


future sowing, no store for time to come. The 
creature who covets and earns the reward of being 
counted “ an acceptable preacher”—a miserable 
praise, fit only for an impotent and soulless dis- * 
courser—but shakes no sinner’s heart, brings 
back to no father’s arms a prodigal son, cheers no 
mother’s soul by the conversion of her children, 
nor ever makes a believer feel that his preaching 
has formed a new and happy era in his spiritual 
life, may spin fine paragraphs for the winding- 
sheet of souls that are dying under his hands; i 
may perform over dead souls the solemnities of 
“ Christian burialbut when the body dies too, j 
and then when the trumpet sounds and the graves 
are opened, what reward will crown his resurrec¬ 
tion ? 

As no variety of talent is effectual for the ends 
of the ministry without spiritual power, so, when 
accompanied by that power, every form of talent 
is. The refined are ready to demand a certain 
chastened style, in which, above all things, there 
shall be no extravagance, either in composition or 
in delivery. On the other hand, the poor are 
slow to recog^e power unless it be accompanied 
by strength of voice and physical vehemence. 
Some will admit of little value in what is only 
exhortational or declamatory: others, again, can¬ 
not imagine that close argument, though it may 





PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 263 

enlighten, shall ever awaken or convert; and thus 
most persons are in danger of forming a narrow 
# ideal circle, within which they would^have the 
Spirit to cooperate with the agency of man. 

We are often told with great earnestness what 
is the best style for preaching; but the fact is, 
. that what would be the very best style for one 
man, would perhaps be the worst possible for an¬ 
other. In the most fervid declamation, the deep¬ 
est principles may be stated and pressed home: 
in the calmest and most logical reasoning, power¬ 
ful motives may be forced close upon the feelings : 
in discussing some general principle, precious por¬ 
tions of the text of Scripture may be elucidated; 
and in simple exposition, general principles may 
be effectively set forth. Let but the powers given 
to any man play with their full force, aided by all 
the stores of Divine knowledge which continuous 
acquisitions from its fountain and its purest chan¬ 
nels can obtain for him; the fire being present— 
the fire of the Spirit’s power and influence— 
spiritual effects will result. 

The discussion about style amounts very much 
to a discussion whether the rifle, the carbine, the 
pistol, or the cannon, is the best weapon. Each 
is best in its place. The great point is, that every 
one shall use the weapon best suited to him, that 
he charge it well, and see that it is in a condition 


264 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


to strike fire. The criticisms which we often 
hear amount to this : We admit that Such-an-one 
is a good exhortational preacher, or a good doc-^ 
trinal preacher, or a good practical preacher, or a 
good expository preacher; but because he has not 
the qualities of another—qualities, perhaps, the 
very opposite of his own—we think lightly of 
him. That is, we admit that the carbine is a 
good carbine; but because it is not a rifle, we con¬ 
demn it; and because the rifle is not a cannon, 
we condemn it. 

Nothing can more directly tend to waste of 
power, than the attempt to divert the mind from 
its natural course of action into one for which it 
is unfitted. Instead of resorting to this with the 
idea of forming all after some preconceived model, 
it would be better to teach all to recognize, in the 
variety of individual character, another proof of 
the manifold wisdom of God. 

Sometimes it is remarkable how small an amount 
of intellectual or literary power is combined with 
considerable, or even commanding, spiritual power. 
A man who by natural talent would impress an 
audience less than most men, yet, by the superior 
unction of the Spirit, may produce religious im¬ 
pressions, and raise up religious fruit, such as 
wiser and greater men might envy. Possessing 
this, his other defects are of comparatively little 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 265 

importance. A general may have many defects 
in his character, temper, and habits, without losing 
command over his men; but if his defects be un- 
soldierly—if, above all, he lacks courage—then 
inevitably does his control over them decline. 
So a statesman may have a thousand defects not 
directly affecting statesmanship, and yet retain 
his ascendency over the mind of the nation; but 
let him show a lack of political sagacity, and at 
once his ascendency is gone. So, if a minister 
of the gospel be justly described as “ dry i” that 
is, if he give godly and candid hearers the im¬ 
pression that he habitually delivers Divine truths 
without any unction which either moves his own 
soul or those of others, the fault is fatal. It is 
what cowardice is in a soldier, folly in a states¬ 
man, or lameness in a runner. The hold of such 
a one upon the conscience must hopelessly pass 
away. Rather let us have the man of humblest 
talent, or of plainest education, who can speak to 
us a word at which the soul within us thrills, than 
one who possesses no such power, though he can 
wrestle with every prejudice, or excite and fasci¬ 
nate every faculty. 

The power of which we speak being neither 
more nor less than the cooperation of the Holy 
Spirit with the preacher, that which is essential 
23 


266 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


to its presence must lie, first, in the state of the 
preacher’s heart: secondly, in the staple of his 
discourse. There must be a soul itself in com¬ 
munion with the Holy One, and there must be 
rays of truth—God’s own truth—radiated from 
that soul to others, along which the Spirit’s secret 
influence may be communicated from heart to 
heart. The preacher must first imbibe the Divine 
fire, and then hold it in his heart, as a Leyden 
jar will hold the invisible electricity; and, this 
done, he must have a conductor to communicate 
it to those who are before him. Unless the truth 
of God be uttered, and aimed in the right direc¬ 
tion—aimed at the auditory, at their conscience, 
whether through the avenue of the imagination, 
the understanding, or the emotions—even had he 
himself the power of the Spirit, he could not 
convey it to others. There is but one conductor, 
and that is the word of life. 

Suppose that a person wishing to send a mes¬ 
sage from London to Edinburgh by lightning, 
knows how to construct an electric battery; but 
when he comes to consider how he will transmit 
the impulse through hundreds of miles, he looks 
at an iron wire, and says, “This is dull, sense¬ 
less, cold, has no sympathy with light: it is un¬ 
natural—in fact, irrational—to imagine that this 
dark thing can convey a lightning-message in a 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 267 

moment.” From this he turns and looks at a 
prism. It glows with the many-colored sunbeam. 
He might say, “ This is sympathetic with light,” 
and in its flashing imagine that he saw proof that 
his message would speed through it; hut when 
he puts it to the experiment, it proves that the 
shining prism will convey no touch of his silent 
fire, but that the dull iron will transmit it to the 
farthest end of the land. And so with God’s 
holy truth. It alone is adapted to carry into the 
soul of man the secret fire which writes before 
the inner eye of the soul a message from the un¬ 
seen One in the skies. Other proposed conduct¬ 
ors may flash more in the showy light, but they 
will not convey the invisible fire. 

Again we repeat, that this fire may be com¬ 
bined with any form of talent, and with any style 
of composition. Who has not seen a tranquil 
man, whose tones seldom rose to passion, and 
never went beyond the severest taste; whose 
thought, demeanor, phrases, all breathed a gentle 
and quiet spirit; and yet, with the placid flow 
of instruction or exposition, a heavenly influence 
silently stole along, stole into the veins of the 
heart, diffusing a sacred glow, a desire to be 
holier, a sense of nearness to God, a refreshing 
of all the good principles within you, a check and 


268 


THE TONGUE OE EIRE. 


a restraint on all tlie evil? Again, you have 
seen a man who begins by some calm argument, 
passes to another point, closely reasoned, which 
again leads him to another well-pointed stroke at 
some error or prejudice; no by-play of imagina¬ 
tion, no home-thrust to your heart, but one steady 
grapple with your intellect—a discourse which 
would be pronounced “ dry,” were it not for a 
mysterious power which accompanies it, not in 
the sentences, not in the syllogisms, not in the 
action, not in the tones, but a spirit infused 
through it all, that makes reasoning turn into a 
spiritual power, and seems to put God’s law into 
your mind, and, at the same time, to write it 
upon your heart. Again, you see a man who at 
once begins with pictures, and from history, from 
nature, from the Bible, from science, he strikes 
up before you a succession of bewitching or affect¬ 
ing scenes, playing with your fancy all the while 
as a poet might play with it; and yet every pic¬ 
ture carries some sacred impulse to your soul, and 
leaves a moral lesson and moral strength behind. 
Another man moves simply on in a straightfor¬ 
ward statement of some great doctrine, opening 
out its various branches, defining, setting guards 
upon his definition, shading from possible mis¬ 
conception, setting up fine distinctions, and seem¬ 
ing occupied principally with putting a truth into 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 269 

a compact and portable shape in your mind; but 
somehow this one truth, which he thus explains 
and defines, rouses within your breast the voices 
of all other truths, and evokes an appeal from 
every sacred thing you ever knew in favor of 
holy living. Another assumes that you know all 
that need be known; and, seizing upon the truths 
that are within you, upon your conscience with 
its light, upon your fear, or hope, or love, on 
your instinct of self-preservation, or on some 
other of the deathless principles of your nature, 
he pours upon you a succession of fervid decla¬ 
mation, exhorting you to that which is right; 
giving nothing to enlarge your knowledge, no¬ 
thing to feed or even to exercise your reasoning 
powers, nothing to enrich the stores of your 
fancy, or to perfect your conceptions of truth; 
and yet his declamation brings a holy power which 
commands you more than the might of strong- 
minded men; and good resolutions and hopes 
that have often been vanquished in days gone 
by, rise up again at the voice of this simple man, 
and you follow him to the feet of the Saviour. 

Come, then, with what voice thou wilt come, 
thou power-clad messenger of my Redeemer! 
Come with thunder on thy tongue, or with a 
sweet “harp of ten strings;” come to us simple 
23 * 


270 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


as a little child, or wise as a scribe instructed of 
God; but, 0 ! let us only feel that fire in thy 
message which lies not in sentences, nor in tones, 
but in a heart itself inflamed from above, and 
pouring fire into our hearts ! 

Just as we find all these types of men imbued 
with Divine power, so do we find every one of 
them destitute of it. You have the gentle man, 
far away from any thing extravagant, never bring¬ 
ing upon himself one word of blame, or giving 
to his auditory one feeling of trouble; but, 0! 
how drearily years and years pass over him! 
precious years, yet no souls are converted, no 
flocks grow larger: the field where he labors is 
never white unto the harvest, and it is always sow¬ 
ing time with him ! Very probably he is content 
with this, and will tell you that in his sphere, 
though there is nothing extraordinary going for¬ 
ward, things are encouraging. Placidly does he 
pass on, although he knows well, and all who 
mark his course know well, that for long, long 
years it would be hard to say what spiritual life 
has flourished under his hand. So, again, you 
may find the reasoner, clear, cogent, and forcible, 
enlisting you on his side, perhaps exciting you 
against every thing which opposes his system; 
but no sinners are turned into saints by his rea- 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 271 

r 

soning; yet he reposes well pleased upon the 
miserable result of having argued his point ably 
—an advocate who has shown the jury that he is 
master of law, but has lost his client’s life. 
And you may find the expositor, who will open 
up paragraph after paragraph with rare subtilty 
of analysis, while his auditory learn something 
of the word of God, and so far become more 
prepared to be good Christians, if once con¬ 
verted; but with his exposition no converting 
power ever comes: perhaps, indeed, he does not 
think that it is his calling to convert sinners. 
You may also find the man of imagination, who 
plays brilliantly upon the various instruments of 
nature and science. His auditory are dazzled, 
perhaps enraptured; but who among them goes 
home to his closet to seek his Saviour, or rises 
up in after-life to bless the preacher ? He was 
sent to fight, but he played off fireworks before 
the enemy, and, instead of flying or falling, they 
only said, “ How grand V* The declaimer you 
may hear, too, whose exhortations run apparently 
to the one point of producing a practical result: 
you have vociferation, and the swell and throe 
of great vehemence; but it is like the hollow 
report of a cannon without shot. 

This absence of power is sometimes so clear 
that the soul that has come to the house of God 


272 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


seeking bread, painfully feels that it is getting 
but a stone; and never is that feeling so painful 
as when all that ought to attend upon spiritual 
power is there—the truth, well understood and 
well stated—all the lineaments and outward form 
that would lead us to expect lifej but, when we 
draw near, there is no breath in it. Sometimes 
one may see that this soulless thing is not a wax 
figure which never breathed, but a corpse from 
which the life has gone. The truths, now uttered 
with such impotence, once thrilled through men 
as they fell from those lips: the appeals which 
now grate like a chime of cracked bells, once 
carried multitudes before them. In days gone 
by, many rose up to bless this man as a messen¬ 
ger of God: to-day his words are as a tale twice 
told. Perhaps, conscious of the loss of the real 
power, he endeavors to compensate for it by a 
greater force of physical oratory, spurring him¬ 
self to impetuosity, or swelling to lofty and sob 
emn impressiveness; but it is only as when a 
ship in a calm makes her sails bulge by rolling: 
they flap and rustle, but there is no strength in 
them, as when, filled by the silent wind, they 
bore the vessel onward. 

Every one of the effects flowing from the ope¬ 
ration of spiritual power in the ministry, is inde¬ 
scribably precious; and it must be grievous to 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 273 

God, as it is manifestly injurious to man, to un¬ 
derrate any kind of fruit. One professes to be 
so bent on attaining progress in the spiritual life, 
that preaching, which is effectual only to the con¬ 
version of sinners, is to him elementary and pdor. 
Another is so exclusively occupied with the dark 
condition of the unsaved, that preaching which 
tends only to ripen the holiness of those already 
converted, is to him beside the mark. One spe¬ 
cially looks for preaching which will tell upon the 
young; and another for what will content men 
of years and experience. But every one ought 
to learn that each variety of usefulness is far too 
estimable to be lightly dealt with. He who is 
in any way used as an instrument to benefit the 
souls of any of my fellow-pilgrims here, ought to 
be cherished by my heart as a precious friend of 
my own. 

Where real spiritual power exists, it will not 
be wholly confined to one class of effects. He 
who leads on believers to brighter holiness, will 
surely lead sinners to see somewhat of the sinful¬ 
ness of their sins; and he who is the means of 
turning a sinner from the error of his ways, is 
the means, in that very act, of aiding the pro¬ 
gress of all those around him; for each one de¬ 
tached from the world and ranked on the side of 


274 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


godliness, becomes a help to the general cause of 
Christianity in the land. 

In our own age and nation, we feel no hesita¬ 
tion in saying, that the particular form of spiritual 
power for which we have most crying need, is that 
whereby men who know the truth are brought to 
the point of deciding for God, and setting out in 
earnest on the way to heaven. We are in danger 
of laboring as if the ground still needed to be 
sown; while the fields are white unto the harvest, 
and need but a reaper. We are in danger of 
preaching as if the people were either all serving 
God, or were all so far away from the possibility 
of being converted soon, that they must be ap¬ 
proached as from a distance, and principles laid 
down and left to work which may bring forth 
fruit after some long time; whereas, the fact is, 
that everywhere the ground is sown. We meet 
with comparatively few men in whose minds there 
is not enough of truth to awaken their conscience, 
and point them toward the cross, were that truth 
only brought home to their hearts with power. 
Men fitted as instruments to use what the people 
believe and know, in order to bring them to a 
decision for God, are those whom the interests 
of our generation most loudly call for. Taught 
by Christianity, but led captive by sin, men are 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 275 

going downward by thousands and tens of thou¬ 
sands—at once in the light and in the dark; 
knowing their Master’s will, but doing it not— 
downward to the punishment of many stripes. 
He, then, who can bring those multitudes to stop 
and think, to feel what they believe, to act on 
what they feel, to cry, “Lord, save me, I perish,” 
he is most distinguished and most blessed of all 
the servants whom the Master honoreth. 

To heal the leper, to open the eyes of the blind, 
to make the lame walk, and the paralytic strong, 
were great and blessed works; but all these suf¬ 
ferers were living men; and great as was the work 
of healing them, to raise the dead was greater 
far. Blessed are ye among men, whom our Lord 
and Master honors to help, or heal, or restore any 
of those souls which are living, but not in perfect 
soundness; but trebly blessed art thou, my bro¬ 
ther, whose joyful lot it is to stretch thy soul over 
a soul that is dead, as Elisha stretched himself 
over the dead son of the Shunammite, and to 
raise it up breathing and calling upon God ! 0 

for a thousand men imbued with converting 
power! Better they than ten thousand times the 
number, however gifted, however learned, how¬ 
ever pleasing, who are destitute of that crowning 
grace of the messenger of God ! 

Our Lord said, “ He that believeth on me, the 


276 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


works that I do shall he do also; yea,and greater 
works than these shall he do, because I go to my 
Father.” By “greater works” he could not 
mean more wonderful miracles; for the wonders 
wrought by his own hands had reached the limits 
of possibility. Greater miracles than raising the 
dead, and making the winds and the seas obey 
him, were not to be performed. Besides, the 
“greater works” to be done are shown to have 
some special character from this, that they are to 
exist in connection with a new order of things, 
“ Because I go to my Father.” We are at no 
loss as to that which was specially dependent on 
his ascension. It was the baptism of the Holy 
Spirit. And we may therefore reasonably con¬ 
clude, that the “ greater work” than all the other 
works which could be done, was that work which 
he himself from heaven announced to his servant 
Paul, as the purpose of his mission, u To open 
their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to 
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that 
they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inherit¬ 
ance among them which are sanctified by faith 
that is in me.” This was the end of his own 
life and death: this was the crown of his own 
glory: “ Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he 
shall save his people from their sins.” Only in 
men actually saved from their sins did his soul, 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 277 

afflicted and smitten, foresee the fruit of its tra¬ 
vail, wherewith it should he satisfied. Only in 
men actually saved from their sins while in the 
flesh, while surrounded by temptation, could he 
foresee the possibility of glorifying his Father 
upon earth, by his own branches bearing much 
fruit, by his own life, “ the life of Christ, being 
manifest in mortal bodies.” Only by this could 
he see that which he so dearly purchased, a holy 
Church formed out of Adam’s fallen sons. Only 
by this could his own especial joy, the joy set be¬ 
fore him, the joy of “ bringing many sons to 
glory,” ever be secured. To this one result his 
whole work pointed: upon this all the interests 
of his kingdom turned. 

No glory of the Eternal One is higher than 
this, “ Mighty to save no name of Godhead 
more adorable than that of “ Saviour ;” no place 
among the servants of God can be so glorious as 
that of an instrument of salvation. u He that 
winneth souls is wise.” u They that turn many 
to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever 
and ever.” Under the new dispensation, the 
Lord’s messengers, abundantly replenished with 
the Spirit, having the cross for their theme and 
the baptism of fire for their impulse, were to go 
forth as men with whom God would work, and 
24 


278 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


would accompany his word with signs following 
it. It was great to cast out devils from the body: 
it is greater to cast them out of souls and out of 
society. It was great to heal the sick or to feed 
the poor: it is greater to heal the sources of dis¬ 
ease and want, by turning sinful hearts to purity. 
He around whom are continually springing up 
new converts from sin to holiness—he, the sound 
of whose voice many bless as having been to them 
the trump of God; who, at the great day, will 
have for his crown of rejoicing tens, or hundreds, 
or thousands; to whom many others were “ teach¬ 
ers/ J but only he a “ father”—he rises to such 
joy and dignity, that he may look back upon the 
best and most honored of God’s ancient servants, 
and feel that, in comparison with them, he has 
only to be thankful for his own more blessed lot. 
He need not envy Moses his rod, or David his 
harp, or Elijah his mantle, or Solomon his wis¬ 
dom ; for his own crown and his own prize are the 
highest to which man may aspire. How close the 
servant is brought to the Master! The Master 
is Saviour, the servant the instrument of saving! 

When we speak of ministerial power, we are 
never to be understood as implying that any 
amount of power in the minister will necessarily 
subdue his hearers. What may be fully relied 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 279 

upon as tlie result of power dwelling in the min¬ 
ister, is that he will make every hearer feel that 
a spiritual power is grappling with him, and bring¬ 
ing him either to yield to the voice that warns 
him, or to set up a conscious resistance. “Almost 
thou persuadest me,” is the language of one who 
can scarcely prevent himself from yielding to the 
force that is impelling him toward Christ. Felix 
trembled, and said, “ Go thy way for this time: 
when I have a convenient season, I will call for 
thee.” Here is a man consciously under the im¬ 
pulse of a power which is urging him to a result 
that he dreads; and, to escape its influence, he 
adopts the ordinary plan of “putting off for a 
while.” But the very awakening of this con¬ 
scious resistance, the setting-up of this struggle 
in the breasts of men, is in itself a proof of power; 
and he who can do this, although he will have his 
Agrippas and his Felixes over whom to mourn, 
will undoubtedly have numbers of others over 
whom to rejoice. 

A farmer who all his lifetime has been sowing, 
but never brought one shock of corn safe home: 
a gardener who has ever been pruning and train 
ing, but never brought one basket of fruit away. 
a merchant who has been trading all his life, but 
never concluded one year with clear profit: a 
lawyer who has had intrusted to him, for years 


280 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


and years, the most important causes, and has 
never carried one: the doctor who has been con¬ 
sulted by thousands in disease, and has never 
brought one patient back to health: the philoso¬ 
pher who has been propounding principles all his 
life, and attempting experiments every day, but 
has never once succeeded in a demonstration— 
all these would be abashed and humiliated men. 
They would walk through the world with their 
heads low, they would acknowledge themselves 
to be abortions, they would not dare to look up 
among those of their own professions; and as for 
others regarding them with respect, pity would 
be all they could give. Yet, alas! are there not 
cases to be found wherein men whose calling it is 
to heal souls, pass years and years, and seldom, 
if ever, can any fruit of their labors be seen ? 
Yet they hold up their heads, and have good 
reasons to give why they are not useful; and 
those reasons generally lie, not in themselves, 
but somewhere else—in the age, the neighbor¬ 
hood, the agitation or the apathy, the ignorance 
or the over-education, the want of gospel light 
or the commonness of gospel light, or some other 
reason why the majority of those who hear them 
continue unconverted, and why they should look 
on in repose, without smiting upon their breasts, 
and crying day and night to God to breathe a 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 281 

power upon them whereby they might awaken 
those that sleep. Probably they have wise things 
to say about the undesirableness of being too 
anxious about fruit, and about the advantage of the 
work going on steadily and slowly, rather than 
seeking for an excitement, and a rush of con¬ 
verts. But while they are thus dozing, sinners 
are going to hell. 

It is pitiable to see a minister who has all his 
life, when judged by the fruit of his labor, been 
destitute of the power of the Spirit; but there is 
something even more touching to see—as, alas! 
sometimes we do see—one who in his early days 
had truly a gift of God in him, becoming weak, 
like other men, without unction, and without 
fruit. The gift, not stirred up, has passed away : 
the power, not renewed and renewed again by 
fresh supplies, has forsaken him. Perhaps, de¬ 
sirous of more efficiency, he has heaped up know¬ 
ledge—not too much knowledge, for none can 
have too much; but he has not maintained a 
due proportion between his acquisitions of know¬ 
ledge and his acquisition of spiritual power. 
He is like one who would pour coals upon a fee¬ 
ble fire with the idea of making a great one, 
until the few live coals were smothered under a 
black mass. Perhaps another has gone just tc 
24 * 


282 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


the opposite extreme; and, fearing to damp his 
lively fire, has allowed it to flame on, without 
constantly feeding it with truth, and knowledge, 
and experience, and thought; and his fire has 
burned out. Perhaps another, beginning to dis¬ 
trust his simple weapon, which had no adorn¬ 
ments, and could only strike right home, has got for 
himself a jewelled sword with a golden blade, 
but finds that the edge is turned by the least re¬ 
sistance. Perhaps another, who used to thunder 
as a second Baptist, and make the truths of the 
eternal law, of the resurrection, of judgment, and 
of the world to come, ring in the ears of slumber¬ 
ing souls with a supernatural and awakening 
power, begins to desire something more alluring, 
less distressing to the sensitive, more acceptable 
to the sedate, more u attractive,” as the phrase 
is; and now you may find him an absurd com¬ 
bination of strength and feebleness—a gunner 
working heavy guns, but with silver barrels,‘and 
scented powder, and balls of frozen honey. 

In the progress of a man’s life, it will often 
happen that great variations appear in his use¬ 
fulness; but if he walk with God, maintain his 
integrity, and make steady progress in knowledge 
and in faith, although the form of his usefulness 
may change, it will never change into useless¬ 
ness When the flush and glow of youthful ardor 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 288 

disappear, they will be replaced, not by vapid¬ 
ness or tameness, but by more of the unction that 
elevates and hallows. There is a law of mechan¬ 
ics, the moral counterpart of which we see ir 
such men, that what is lost in velocity is gained 
in power. And yet such men, though they may 
be blessed with great usefulness, if they see not 
conversions such as rejoiced their earlier days, 
will ever look back with yearning and humilia¬ 
tion. Never will they fail to honor above all 
their brethren those whom God honors by making 
them the instruments of many conversions, or to 
covet, with a coveting more eager than they 
could feel for any other distinction, or joy, or 
gift, the restoration to them of the power to per¬ 
suade sinners to be reconciled to God. 

A more pitiable thing cannot be than to see a 
man who, himself destitute of ministerial power, 
not only is unconscious how miserable a creature 
he is, but is even ready to make light of the use¬ 
fulness of others; and, in his ordinary conversa¬ 
tion, to set down those whom the Lord honors as 
the instruments of converting sinners, below what 
he calls “ intellectual” men, fine soliloquizers, or 
curious speculators, who deal out dainties from 
the pulpit, but do no work that will live when 
they are dead. This style of depreciating the v 
useful and the earnest, painful in any one, be- 


284 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


comes appalling when it falls from the lips of a 
man who at one stage of his own life was re¬ 
markably useful, but who has lost his fire; and 
who, instead of mourning, and seeking to re¬ 
cover it, can even make light of those who have 
retained theirs. “ It is not hard to convert ser¬ 
vant-maids,” and such depreciating expressions, 
may lightly drop from an unthinking lip, hut 
they will affect hearers, and will be remembered 
in the great day; and how differently will the 
two men appear—the one whose humble laboi 
has been the means of converting servant-maids, 
and the one whose envy and whose wit were 
vented in making light of the work ! 

O, let those of us whose history too plainly 
tells that no extraordinary power of God has 
rested upon us; who can look back to years of 
labor which, if not absolutely barren, yet, in com¬ 
parison with what others have reaped, must be 
called years of barrenness—let us not fail to bless 
and to honor, in our own hearts, those who have been 
in the mean time doing us good by the news that 
has reached us, every now and then, of the fruit 
of their labor. Above all, let us look back on 
our years of barrenness with most tender and con¬ 
trite humiliation, crying earnestly to God to take 
away our reproach from among men, and to give 
us many, many children I 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 285 

A minister can never be responsible for suc¬ 
cess, but he is responsible for power; responsible 
not only for presenting the truth to the people— 
in which many seem to think that their responsi¬ 
bility terminates—but responsible also for this, 
that the truth he presents be not dry, but ac¬ 
companied with some energy of the Spirit. If 
the Spirit be in the man, shining upon his soul 
with the light of God, more or less of holy fire 
will go with the word. A frame having muscu¬ 
lar strength, without nervous energy—a counte¬ 
nance with linear grace, without expression—a 
needle for the compass, without magnetism, are 
not more defective than is the statement of re¬ 
ligious truth without the accompanying power 
of the Holy Spirit. This power was presupposed 
in the man’s first entrance on the ministry. He 
stands there by virtue of his solemn declaration 
before God and men that he felt it in his heart; 
and he is bound to stir up the gift of God within 
him, to keep his lamp trimmed, and his light burn¬ 
ing, and evermore to be replenishing with holy oil. 

This power has but one source—the Spirit of 
God in the soul of man. It is the one thing that 
cannot be feigned. A hypocrite may possess the 
truth, and clearly explain, and powerfully urge, 
and passionately apply it. He may feign tender¬ 
ness, feign ardor, feign all the passions ; but he 


286 TIIE TONGUE OF FIRE. 

cannot feign the power that searches the con¬ 
science; that makes men feel, “God is in you of 
a truth;” that leads them in the silence of their 
own closets to wet their couch with their tears, and 
spend long nights in repenting before God. You 
may as well attempt to feign life in a dead eye, or 
music in a cracked voice, as to feign the power 
of the Holy Spirit in a soul that does not habitu¬ 
ally wait at the throne of grace, until endued with 
power from on high. 

Those of us who are manifestly not endued with 
great power, who cannot flatter ourselves that any 
one looks upon us as blessed messengers of God, 
or in any light higher than that of well-meaning 
and useful men, by whose ministry perhaps, now 
and then, at rare intervals, such a thing may be 
heard of as a sinner being converted, and who yet 
feel disinclined to take any blame to our own heart 
on account of our barrenness, can best judge how 
much time has been spent in our closets, in de¬ 
ploring the state of the souls that are perishing 
under our sight; in strong crying and tears to God 
for their deliverance; in importuning and implor¬ 
ing that we might be robed with power, and made 
mighty to blow an awakening blast, and rescue 
multitudes from the grasp of the Devil. 

We can, each one for himself, best tell whether 




PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 287 

or not the results of our labors do very fairly cor¬ 
respond with the depth, intensity, and continuity 
of our secret search after the coworking fire of the 
Spirit. If on a review it should appear clear to 
us that far, far more might have been done in our 
private walk with God toward having our own 
souls imbued with the Spirit of Christ and of 
Christ’s apostles, then let each of us conclude for 
himself, whether much more might or might not 
have been done to “save those that hear him.” 
And should the conclusion on our mind be clear 
that more might have been done, much more— 
that it ought to have been done—that we are very 
guilty by reason of supineness, of unbelief, of fee¬ 
ble and ineffectual prayer, of duplicity in our aim, 
or of any other defect in the keeping our own 
souls as God’s ambassadors, let our penitence be 
deep, our cry for forgiveness pressing and ear- 
nest; but not for one moment let it take that form 
which strangely unnerves and debilitates a man— 
namely, the state of mind in which one takes 
pleasure in talking of his own feebleness and un¬ 
worthiness, or, at least, finds sufficient relief in 
talking of it. Rather let us feel sure that the 
God of grace and mercy will hearken to our voice, 
will answer our prayer, will forgive our past un¬ 
faithfulness, will draw near to us with new and 
gracious power, will enable us to go forth as giants 


288 


THE TONGUE OE EIRE. 


refreshed with new wine, to bear away from the 
arms of the adversary, in triumph and with shout¬ 
ing, many a lamb that is ready to be torn in pieces. 

We cannot be content to look upon the minister 
of this actual hour as any thing less, in the inten¬ 
tion of our God and Saviour, than an instrument 
“of the mighty power of God”—the power which 
is unto salvation. We do not expect the gift of 
tongues or of miracles, because these were not es¬ 
sential to the work of the ministry; but the active 
cooperation, the abiding unction of the Holy Spirit 
is. If we were forced to believe either that all 
the primitive manifestations of the Spirit were 
now attainable, or that all had now passed away, 
we could a thousand times rather look for the 
tongues and the miracles, with the gift of prophe¬ 
sying, than dismiss the hope of this last with that 
of the other gifts. Better the excess of faith, a 
thousand times better and more rational, than 
unbelief in any promise that stands clearly for all 
generations. Better to suppose that the Lord de¬ 
signed every sign and token of his presence to 
continue with his Church to the last, than sup¬ 
pose that they were all to be called back, and 
that the Christians of the latter day were to 
suffer a total privation of the Holy Spirit’s min¬ 
isterial gifts. 

We will covet, earnestly covet the Lord’s good 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 289 

gift of prophesying; and we will covet, also, the 
‘‘manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal/' not 
only in the pastors of the Church, but in the mem¬ 
bers; giving to one the word of wisdom, to an¬ 
other the word of knowledge, to another the spirit 
of grace and of supplications, that men with fire 
in their hearts may go everywhere, and publicly 
or privately preach the word, the Lord working 
with them, and confirming the word by signs fol¬ 
lowing. Let us look up and hope to see, not one, 
or two, or three; not merely an occasional and 
extraordinary man, shining in the churches as 
with a light from on high; but let us soberly, and 
steadily, and in prayer, expect companies of 
preachers, each differing from his brethren, yet 
all of them manifesting in some form or another 
that an anointing from the Holy One abides upon 
them, teaches them in all things, and enables 
them to appear before men, not only saying in 
words, but by their commending fruits saying to 
the conscience, “Now, then, we are ambassadors 
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us:: 
we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
God." One such man is better than a thousand, 
and two of them will put ten thousand to flight. 

Intimately connected with the question of min- 

25 


290 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


isterial power is another vital question—whethei 
or not the Church is to retain the converting 
influence of the Holy Spirit on any thing like the 
original scale. Here, again, we do not confine 
ourselves to combating formally stated opinions, 
but deal with vague, undefined, unexpressed, or 
but half expressed sentiments, not embodied in 
the creed of any Church, but perceptible in the 
ordinary tone equally of religious conversation, 
literature, and preaching. Is it not a prevalent 
state of feeling, that to look for a very large num¬ 
ber of conversions at once is extravagant; that 
for any minister to expect a great many to be con¬ 
verted while he is delivering the sermon then in 
hand, argues a mind scarcely balanced; that sud¬ 
den conversions have much to be said against 
them; that we ought to be content if the work of 
God proceed slowly, and to be elated if the good 
men of any community bear some respectable pro¬ 
portion to the numbers who forget God ? 

It is manifest that the conversions effected by 
the primitive Church were very numerous, com¬ 
pared with her agencies and facilities; varying 
greatly in different times and places, but, in the 
main, going onward with accumulative power. 
The difference between the conversion of a Jew 
to the faith and holiness of the gospel, and the 
conversion of a nominal Christian to the same 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 2^1 

faith and holiness, is a difference, not of kind, 
but of degree; and the degree is not so great as 
might at first sight be supposed. The Jew believed 
the oracles of God, and the truths therein con¬ 
tained, as far as he knew them. So does the 
nominal Christian. Both hold the truth in un¬ 
righteousness—the unrighteousness of frank re¬ 
bellion, or of pharisaical self-righteousness. Both 
are brought to learn God's love in redeeming man, 
to repent, to believe on the crucified Messiah as 
their Saviour, and to walk in fellowship with the 
Father and the Son. 

The conversion of a heathen involved much 
more of intellectual enlightenment, and, on the 
whole, presented a greater difficulty, and a greater 
change; but we do not find that the apostles ever 
point out any difference in the operation of the 
Spirit in the conversion of a Jewish scribe and of 
a heathen necromancer, of a Boman centurion and 
of a widow in Jerusalem. The same mighty 
power convinced them all of sin, of righteousness, 
and of judgment, and brought them to a level by 
the wounds of a smitten spirit: then—like those 
with various maladies, who all came to Christ and 
were all healed—came barbarian and Scythian, 
bond and free, Jew and Greek, learned and un¬ 
learned. 

If we take the hundred and twenty disciples 


292 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


of whom the Church consisted on the day of Pen¬ 
tecost, and then take the number of Christians 
before the first century was ended, we see how 
“ mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed.” 
Then suppose, for one moment, the possibility 
that, by the same spiritual power, the Church 
had multiplied her converts in equal ratio : few 
ages would have elapsed before the whole earth 
would have been renewed in righteousness. But 
the saint-making power abated; and crowds of Chris¬ 
tians became little better, though still better, than 
crowds of heathen. Was this loss of efficiency 
owing to the unfaithfulness of men, and, there¬ 
fore, capable of being recovered by a return to 
the original means of importunate prayer and 
strong faith ? or was it owing to a design of the 
Head of the Church, and therefore irrecovera¬ 
ble? 

On a question so vital to the interests of man¬ 
kind, no mind ought to float on the prevailing 
current without adopting a deliberate conviction. 
Was the conversion of thousands in Jerusalem, 
of crowds in Ephesus, in Samaria, Antioch, Cor¬ 
inth, Kome, and elsewhere, a proof, once for all, 
of what God could do toward the saving of this 
lost world, which he designed never to repeat, and 
which his children would be presumptuous in ex¬ 
pecting to see again? Were those multitudes, 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 293 

60 speedily gathered out of the world, to rep¬ 
resent, in future ages, only small companies of 
true believers, to whom accessions were to be 
very gradual, and who were never to gain the 
overwhelming majority? If so, then the Chris¬ 
tian dispensation was deliberately planned above 
to begin in sunrise, but, instead of shining more 
and more to the perfect day, speedily to pale into 
twilight; and then darken to a long, long night, 
in which stars would thinly spangle a wide space 
of gloom. 

Would not many who recoil from this conclu¬ 
sion stare at a man having a congregation of a 
thousand people before him, any one of whom 
would feel perplexed if you asked him, “ Could 
you confidently lay your hand on fifty persons in 
this congregation who are living like heirs of hea¬ 
ven ?”—if he, simply telling them their state, 
would go on to say, that they might all that very 
morning become children of God, and live for 
u the rest of their time” a new and blessed life ? 
Were it done with the official formality which at 
once indicated that it was just a thing proper to 
be believed, and even to be said now and then, 
very probably it would excite no remark ; but if 
it were done with the downright air of a man 
who thoroughly meant what he said, and was 
25 * 


294 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


then and there looking for corresponding results, 
would not many be startled ? But why ? If it 
be not true that God has withdrawn from Chris¬ 
tianity the converting power of the Holy Ghost, 
why ? Either affirm your principle, or abandon 
the habit of thought which you have formed on 
the assumption of that principle. If you see 
that there is death to the Church, or death to souls, 
in the principle, why not see that there is death, 
too, in assuming it, and acting upon it, as clearly 
announced, without affirming it ? 

Some who would be gratified to see an expec¬ 
tation of one conversion, or of a few, would nev¬ 
ertheless be disturbed by the manifest expecta¬ 
tion of a great number. Why should this be? 
If the minister of the gospel is not now to go be¬ 
fore a multitude with a frank and earnest assur¬ 
ance that every one of them who will only repent 
and believe may “ receive the gift of the Holy 
Ghost,” it must be because our dispensation has 
been fearfully changed since its opening. The 
first multitude who stood before a preacher of 
Christianity can never be regarded as represent¬ 
ing itself alone. When the cry arose from it, 
u What must we do ?” it was not the men then 
present only who inquired. It was you, and I, 
and every man who ever comes to a preacher of 
the gospel to hear what he has to say on the great 


PERMANENT BENEEITS TO THE CHURCH. 295 

subject of our salvation. The answer which Pe¬ 
ter rendered to that multitude was not to them 
alone, but to us and our children, to all of even* 
age and every nation who put the question which 
they put. That answer was, u Repent, and be 
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall re¬ 
ceive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” He does not 
promise them that they should be admitted as 
members of the Church merely, accounted Chris¬ 
tians merely, or that after death they shall inherit 
eternal happiness; but, in plain strong words, he 
tells them that they shall receive that blessing 
which constitutes the substance of the gospel: 
(< Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost;” 
and this, not u some of you,” but 11 every one of 
you,” with no condition whatever but that they 
“ repent, and be baptized.” 

Is it to be supposed that Peter would have al¬ 
tered this reply, had you, and I, and our child¬ 
ren been there ? or that, had the image of future 
generations risen to his eye as standing behind 
those he addressed and represented by them, he 
would have qualified his grand promise, and 
taken care to falter something guarded, instead 
of plainly saying, u Ye shall receive the gift of 
the Holy Ghost ?” Let those who fear to regard 
this promise as equally applicable to us as to 


296 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


them, only read the words with which he follows 
it up : “ For the promise is unto you, and to your 
children, and to all that are afar off, even as many 
as the Lord our God shall call. On the next oc¬ 
casion when he addresses a multitude, he holds 
this language: “Unto you first God, having raised 
up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turn¬ 
ing away every one of you from his iniquities 
Here the converting grace of Christ is without 
hesitation proclaimed to all who stand before him. 

It is to be remarked that what he here states 
to be Christ’s mode of blessing men lies in con¬ 
version itself, in the “turning away” of a man 
“from his iniquities.” Whatever the gospel 
may do indirectly for the enlightenment and ele¬ 
vation of a man, so long as he continues the ser¬ 
vant of sin, it has conferred upon him no eternal 
advantage. “ His servants ye are to whom ye 
obey,” is a word that must stand for ever. He 
that is still doing the work of Satan is his ser¬ 
vant, and with him must take his reward. And 
it is also notable that he speaks of Jesus having 
been sent to bless them after he had been raised; 
thus announcing a mission of Christ subsequent 
to his resurrection, yet having already taken place 
in those days. This must be that presence of 
Christ which he promised them when he was 
about to depart from them, saying, in the very 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 297 

act of leaving them, “I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world.” 

“ With them:” no longer in that body which 
confined him to the very spot in which the 
Twelve were, but“ with them” by the power of his 
Spirit, which is represented in the Apocalypse as 
the “ eyes of the Lamb.” “And I beheld, and 
lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four 
beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a 
Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns 
and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of 
God sent forth into all the earth.” (Rev. v. 6.) 
Here we have the Lamb enthroned, yet, “as 
slain,” with the tokens of death and atonement 
upon him; yet, again, “having seven horns,” the 
signs of universal kingship, “and seven eyes, 
which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into 
all the earth.” Majesty, mediation, and spirit¬ 
ual presence “throughout all the earth,” are here 
gloriously set before us; and the Lamb, though 
no longer bodily present with one group of dis¬ 
ciples, is present with all, by his Spirit which is 
moving in the hearts of those who serve him, as 
if it were the glance of the Lord. He ascended 
that he might be with us all and with us always; 
just as a prince, on the eve of the battle, would 
retire from any one division of his army, and go 
above them, that he might be present with all; 


298 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


for he would be present with every battalion that 
he had under his sight. And as that prince 
would dart his own spirit by his eye into the 
breast of every follower, so does our King dart his 
into the breast of all who wait before his throne. 

The one blessing, then, which the exalted Me¬ 
diator has to confer on this world is, in “ turning 
men from their iniquities,” in converting sinners 
from the error of their ways, in bringing those 
who are afar off from God nigh to him, and 
making those who are now living in sin to be 
(t heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;” re¬ 
storing, in fact, the image of God upon earth, 
manifesting the Divine ideal of humanity in our 
<( mortal bodies,” rearing up communities who 
shall be properly called “ the children of our Fa¬ 
ther who is in heaven”—communities whose 
ruling nature shall not be that of fallen Adam, 
but who shall have that mind in them which 
was also in Christ, being made partakers of the 
Divine nature, and, in proof thereof, loving those 
that hate them, blessing those that curse them, 
praying for those that despitefully use them and 
persecute them; and thus, by returning good 
feelings for bad feelings, good words for bad 
words, good deeds for bad deeds, showing them¬ 
selves the children of their Father in heaven. 
The triumph and glory of Christ lies in so renew- 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 299 

ing the face of the earth, that this image of God 
shall be the prevalent characteristic of humanity, 
that peace and good-will shall take hold of nations, 
righteousness and truth flourish in the homes of all. 

The accomplishment, to a considerable extent, 
of this great purpose formed the singular glory 
of the early Church. To a community in the 
city of Rome it could be said, “ Ye were the ser¬ 
vants of sin. . . . But now, being made free from 
sin, and become servants to God, ye have your 
fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” 
To another company in the city of Corinth it 
could be said, after describing the various classes 
of sinners who could not see the kingdom of God, 
“ Such were some of you; but ye are washed, 
but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the 
name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our 
God.” To some in the city of Ephesus it could 
be said, “And you hath he quickened who were 
dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in times 
past ye walked according to the course of this 
world, according to the prince of the power of the 
air, the spirit that now worketh in the children 
of disobedience; among whom also we all had our 
conversation in times past in the lusts of our 
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the 
mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, 
even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, 



300 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


for his great love wherewith he loved us, even 
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us 
together with Christ; (by grace are ye saved;) 
and hath raised us up together, and made us sit 
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that 
in the ages to come he might show the exceed¬ 
ing riches of his grace in his kindness toward us 
through Christ Jesus.” (Eph. ii. 1-7.) To 
some in the city of Colosse it could be said, 
“ Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath 
made us meet to he partakers of the inheritance 
of the saints in light; who has delivered us from 
the power of darkness, and hath translated us 
into the kingdom of his dear Son.” (Col. i. 12, 
13.) To some in Thessalonica it could be said, 
“And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, 
having received the word in much affliction, with 
joy of the Holy Ghost; so that ye were ensam- 
ples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia.” 
(1 Thess. i. 6, 7.) And when our Lord looked 
down from heaven upon the seven Churches of 
Asia, even his eyes of flame, looking upon the 
Church of Sardis itself, saw there were “some 
names in Sardis which had not defiled their gar¬ 
ments.” 

To suppose that this power to regenerate man, 
and thereby to ameliorate human society, has 
been withdrawn from the Church by the will and 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 301 

appointment of her adorable Head, is to suppose, 
in fact, that the one practical end of Christianity 
has been voluntarily abandoned —that end which 
lies in glorifying God upon the earth, and in 
saving the souls of men. If Christianity cannot 
renew men in the image of God, she ceases to 
have any special distinction above other religions, 
except the one of more wisdom and more virtue. 
Her mission here was to overcome Satan in the 
realm in which he had hitherto triumphed, to 
reestablish the empire of God over the hearts and 
lives of a race that had wandered from him, and 
to prepare out of the children of that race heirs 
meet for a pure and an immortal kingdom. 

Not only would this practical end be abandoned, 
but the standing evidence to Christianity would 
be discontinued. The miracles and prophecies 
of the past time are an evidence to Christianity 
as a system of truth; but if she be only a system 
of truth, and not also a power unto salvation, she 
but adds to the guilt of men here by increasing 
their light, and to their misery hereafter by in¬ 
creasing their stripes. No miracles^ no prophe¬ 
cies, no accumulation of arguments under heaven, 
can demonstrate to our neighbors at this moment 
that Christianity is a power which can actually 
26 



302 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


make men superior to their own circumstances 
and their own sins; which can take men of this 
nineteenth century—men with sin in their blood, 
sin in their bones, sin in their habits, sin in their 
down-sitting and their up-rising, sin against God, 
sin against their neighbor, sin against themselves, 
sins of self-interest and sins against self-interest, 
sins for happiness, and sins that wreck happi¬ 
ness—and out of these men, still living in the 
very circumstances wherein their past time has 
been spent, make “ servants of God, free from 
sin, having their fruit unto holiness, and the end 
everlasting life.” 

The evidence of this, the only real and effective 
evidence, is living men who have been regenerated, 
and whose good works plainly declare them to be 
of our Father *who is in heaven. We, too, can 
say, that “ God has sent his Son Jesus to bless” 
our neighbors, “in turning away every one of 
them from his iniquities;” but how unimpressive 
would be our saying it, were there none to whom 
we could point them, and add, “ These are our 
epistles, known and read of all men !” 

Peter, recurring again to the kingly state of 
the Saviour, said, “ Him hath God exalted with 
his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for 
to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of 
sins. And we are his witnesses of these things; 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 30B 

and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath 
given to them that obey him.” (Acts v. 31, 32.) 
Here is the double evidence, that of apostles and 
that of the Spirit in living converts. We of this 
day are also Christ’s witnesses that he is “ ex¬ 
alted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance 
and forgiveness of sins;” but our witness must be 
corroborated by those who, having received the Holy 
Ghost, live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit. 

Peter, in speaking of the witness which the 
prophets bore to Christ, sums it up thus: “ To 
him give all the prophets witness, that through 
his name whosoever believeth in him shall re¬ 
ceive remission of sins” When we bear this 
witness, we ought to expect the same attestation 
of it which Peter saw in his Gentile audience, 
and which he afterward used to prove that they 
also had received salvation as well as the Jews; 
namely, God “put no difference between us” 
(the first Jewish converts) “and them, purifying 
their hearts by faith.” Wherever men can be 
pointed to, whose hearts have been purified by 
faith, whose lives are a manifest example of sal¬ 
vation from sin, there is the standing evidence 
that Christianity is “the power of God unto sal¬ 
vation;” and no other description of evidence, 
as we before said, can prove this. Is it suppo- 
sable that Christ has withdrawn from his Church 


304 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


or diminished that power which would show con¬ 
tinually that he 11 saves his people from their sins V’ 

The converting power is also the Church’s great 
attraction. It is true that some would attract 
men by ceremonies, or talent, or the charms of 
architecture or music—attract them that they may 
convert them; whereas the true order is, Con¬ 
vert, that you may attract. The one is the order 
of the charlatan, who trusts to factitious allure¬ 
ments for attracting the public in the hope that he 
may cure some; the other, the order of the true 
physician, who trusts to the fact of his curing some 
as the means of attracting others. Whenever the 
Church sends into a family one new convert glow¬ 
ing with love and joy, she kindles a light which 
will, in all probability, give light to all that are 
in the house. Whenever she is the means of 
making one shopman turn from his sins, and ex¬ 
hibit to his comrades a picture of holy living, in 
all probability she will soon have others from that 
shop at her altars. Whenever she brings one 
factory-girl to sit, like Mary, at the feet of Jesus, 
very probably in a little while other Marys will 
be with her. 

In every situation, new converts are the most 
powerful attraction that ever acts on those who 
are still in the world. There seems a peculiar 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 305 

spiritual power connected with the first love, and 
an impressiveness in the words, of new converts, 
enforced by the manifest change in them, which 
nothing else can exert. That house of God 
which becomes noted in a neighborhood as a place 
in which many sinners have been “ transformed 
by the renewing of their minds,” will, by a cer¬ 
tain instinct of our redeemed humanity, soon be¬ 
come a centre of attraction, not only to those 
who, with scarcely any light, are groping after 
the truth, but even to men who are still hardily 
going on in sin. The greatest fame of Chris¬ 
tianity is the fame of the cures she works; her 
greatest glory the glory of the saints she trains; 
her own unshared renown the renown of sinners 
renewed in the image of God; and wherever 
works of this kind are noised abroad in any com¬ 
munity, there the preacher will not want hearers, 
there the sower will' not be without a field. 

The converting power is also the principal lever 
which Christianity can use for raising the stand¬ 
ard of morals in nations. Instruction is the 
basis of all moral operation; but instruction in 
morals, like instruction in science, is of little 
force unless backed by experiment. Say all you 
can to men about the duty of returning good for 
26* 


306 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


evil, tliey will scarcely have a clear conception of 
it, until they see some man deliberately benefit¬ 
ing one from whom he has received deliberate 
injury. One tradesman converted, and manfully 
taking ground among his companions against 
trade tricks once used by himself, casts greater 
shame upon their dishonesty than all the instruc¬ 
tions they ever heard from pulpits; or, rather, 
gives an edge, a power, and an embodiment to 
them all. One youth whom religion strengthens 
to walk purely among dissipated companions, sends 
lights and stings into their consciences -which 
mere instruction could not give, because it shows 
them that purity is not, as temptation says, unat¬ 
tainable. And so with all the virtues: it is but by 
embodying them in the persons of men that they 
become thoroughly understood in the public mind. 

It is but too well known that there are nations 
of the highest civilization, in. which all that need 
be said about truthfulness has been said for ages, 
till the word “truth” is on the lips of everyone; 
yet it is next to impossible to find one being who 
has any thing like a just conception of what 
manly, consistent, continual truth-telling is. 

Just in proportion as the number of converted 
men is great or small, will be the amount of con¬ 
science in the community generally. Viewed in 
this light, each conversion facilitates future conver- 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 307 

sions. Each new convert adds somewhat to the 
moral influence existing among men, and each 
additional thousand greatly improves the public 
conscience, and weakens the ties which bind men 
to sin. Where no one is godly, moderately cor¬ 
rect persons are almost ashamed of their lack of 
badness: where a tenth of the adults are godly, 
even ordinary sinners are ashamed of their lack 
of goodness; and where a fifth or a third of the 
adults are godly, the hindrances to the conver¬ 
sion of the rest are as nothing, compared with 
those that exist where the great masses are still 
living in their sins. 


The converting power is also the only means 
whereby Christianity raises up agents for her 
own propagation. That which is wanted in an 
agent, above all, is zeal—zeal for God, burning 
desire to save sinners. This zeal is never a mat¬ 
ter of mere conviction, but always a matter of 
nature. It is “ Christ in you.” It is “the love 
of Christ constraining you.” It is the Divine 
nature, which delights to communicate, to bestow, 
to purify, to save, breathed into the soul of man, 
and impelling it in the same course wherein Christ 
himself moved. Agents with this nature we can 
have only by successive outpourings of the Spirit 
of God, by constant accessions of new converts. 


308 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


When they who have been great sinners are 
themselves converted to God, having been for¬ 
given much, they love much, and frequently 
become mighty instruments of winning others to 
Christ. For the high work of the ministry, either 
we must content ourselves to make ministers by a 
factitious process, or we must look to see them 
springing up from amid multitudes of new con¬ 
verts, who in youth turn to the Lord, and devote 
themselves to do his will. When conversions are 
not few, but many—when 11 numbers turn to the 
Lord”—when the inhabitants of one town say to 
those of another, “ Come, let us go speedily to 
seek the Lord, and to pray before the Lord of 
hosts”—when there are many repenting, and 
many rejoicing, saying, “ We have redemption in 
his blood, even the forgiveness of sins”—then 
will assuredly appear some with plain marks that 
the spirit of the prophets is in them, and that 
they are called to spread far and wide the glori¬ 
ous salvation of which they themselves partake. 

Nothing so reanimates the zeal of old Chris¬ 
tians as witnessing the joy and simplicity, the 
gratitude and fervor, of those who have been 
lately born of God. While the old disciple is to 
the young one an example of moderation and 
strength, the young is to the old an example of 
fervor; the one shedding upon the other a steady- 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 309 

ing influence, while he receives in return a cheer¬ 
ing and an impelling one. 

It is also wonderful how much the occurrence of 
conversions heightens the efficiency of men already 
employed in the ministry, or in other departments 
of the work of God. The preacher preaches 
with new heart; the exhorter exhorts with revived 
feeling; he that prays has double faith and fer¬ 
vor; and the joy of conquest breathes new vigor 
into all the Lord’s host. 

While the importance, and in fact the necessity, 
of the converting power of the Spirit may be ad¬ 
mitted in the abstract, all its practical value may 
be set aside by cherishing dislike to the idea of 
sudden conversions, or numerous conversions. It 
is deemed sober to expect conversions some time, 
but not so to expect them now; and as the “now” 
perpetuates itself on, and on, and on through the 
lifetime of a generation, the time to look for their 
conversion never comes, and the next generation 
succeed to the same chill law of unbelief; each 
one living in the doomed “ now” when the con¬ 
verting power is not to be looked for without 
fanaticism. 

The preference so carefully and even ostenta¬ 
tiously displayed by many good men for what are 
called gradual conversions over sudden ones, may 
have some foundation—but not in Scripture. All 


310 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


the conversions we find mentioned in the New 
Testament are sudden. That of Lydia is the 
only one that is ever cited as being gradual, and 
yet it took place under one sermon. The expres¬ 
sion, “The Lord opened her heart,” cannot imply, 
at the very most, more than that the action upon 
her heart was a gentle one : the door was opened, 
not burst in; but it did not take three months to 
open it—it was done in a day. The sudden con¬ 
version is an operation manifestly Divine. It 
brings with it a token of something supernatural; 
and when the after-life attests its genuineness, 
there is in the very fact of its suddenness a per¬ 
petual memento of “ the mighty power of God.” 
The natural aversion of the heart to every thing 
which forces upon it the consciousness of a spir¬ 
itual and supernatural power moving in this pre¬ 
sent life, sufficiently accounts for the tendency we 
all feel to prefer some mode of operation which 
would appear less supernatural than the sudden, 
not to say miraculous, transformations from sin to 
godliness, which form the commonplace chroni¬ 
cles of the early Church. 

As to the question, whether those who are sud¬ 
denly converted are or are not as stable as those 
upon whom the work is more gradual, few are in 
a good position to judge; for every one who is 
suddenly converted is sure to have many eyes 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 311 

upon him; and if he draw hack, the notice of all 
these is excited; whereas, many who gradually 
take up a religious profession, gradually drop it 
again, and scarcely any notice is taken. But, be 
the question of stability settled as it may, it is 
certain that the scriptural examples of conversion 
are sudden; and equally certain that, if we are to 
look only for gradual conversions, we must delibe¬ 
rately make up our minds to see millions upon 
millions of our countrymen die impenitent, who, 
if sudden conversions are multiplied, may yet be 
brought to God before they end their days. The 
jailer was found at the extremity of sinfulness, 
just in the act of suicide; yet that very night 
salvation was preached to him, embraced by him, 
and filled his heart with holy joy. 

Some would not so much object to sudden con¬ 
versions, if many of them did not take place at 
a time. But there is something unaccountable 
in the feeling with which even godly men look 
upon any movement in which it would seem that 
a large number of sinners have been simulta¬ 
neously turned to God. First, they can hardly 
believe that the work is real: they begin to pro¬ 
phesy that it will not be lasting. Then, if they 
find that it has lasted, they still incline to think 
that they had better not look for any thing so 


312 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


extraordinary among tlieir own neighbors, but go 
on steadily, as they say, gaining by degrees. 

One simple objection to this theory of “ going 
on steadily” (that is, slowly) is, that it coolly 
consigns whole generations to hell, and leaves us 
with the dreadful feeling, that the best progress 
of the work of God is a progress which leaves the 
great majority of those now alive hopelessly in 
their sins. Another objection to this “ going on 
steadily” is, that it is not pentecostal: it is not 
primitive: it is not after the example of “ the 
mighty power of God.” In the early Church, 
conversions were by the hundred and the thou¬ 
sand : the word spread, not with the moderation 
dear to small and proper men, who are always 
afraid of being charged with extravagance, but 
with the sweep and power of a Divine movement, 
the agents in which were borne onward as on the 
wings of the wind, willing to be a laughing-stock 
to men, willing to hear an outcry from the world 
which they were turning upside down. 

When conversions are very numerous, in pro¬ 
portion to the human instruments, the agency of 
God is much more strikingly manifested than 
when they are few. Although the man who, by 
his own experience, knows what it is to pass from 
darkness to light, will see an evidence of the 
power of the Holy Ghost in any and every true 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 313 

conversion; those who have no such experience, 
easily avoid concluding that a supernatural power 
is in action, so long as they can trace an imagined 
proportion between the agency and the results. 
If a few people are turned from their sins by 
many preachers, it seems no more than natural: 
if a few holy men are found in a multitude, it is 
only another proof, they think, of the fact that 
there will always be a certain number of good 
people among the wicked. But if a large num¬ 
ber of thoughtless youths, or confirmed sinners, 
become devoted to God through the instrument¬ 
ality of some one preacher, and if this extend to 
neighborhood after neighborhood, a feeling falls 
upon spectators that it is not to be accounted for 
by reasoning about proportion, but by the opera¬ 
tion of a superior power. 

Let but the results of preaching as to the num¬ 
ber and suddenness of the conversions pass a cer¬ 
tain point—let the number be thousands, and the 
time one day—and the idea of attributing this to 
the power of some men would not enter the mind. 
Who ever thought, on reading that three thousand 
Jews were converted on the day of Pentecost, 
and lived holy lives afterward, of exclaiming, 
“ What a preacher Peter was The magnitude 
of the effect at once suggests a superhuman 
27 


314 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


cause. Had the result been small, the man 
would have been glorified; but when it took such 
proportions, he was thrown into the shade, and 
“the mighty power of God” alone occupies the 
mind. When a flash of light falls on our path 
in the street in the evening, we should at once 
think of a lamp, because the surface illuminated 
in itself indicates some such origin. Hut if we 
see a light fall upon a hill, and sweep over succes¬ 
sive hills, until a whole country-side is brightened, 
we think of the sun. 

Too many conversions now take place, too many 
really converted men are to be found, to permit 
any one to believe that the converting power of 
the Spirit has been wholly withdrawn from the 
Church. His presence in the midst of us is at¬ 
tested by many witnesses; but the practical ques¬ 
tion for us is, Is it contrary to the design of God 
that true believers now should multiply themselves 
as rapidly, in proportion, as they did after the day 
of Pentecost? If it be, then, no matter what 
means may be used, that result cannot be ob¬ 
tained; but if it be not , then we are bound to 
hope that, the same means being used—the same 
prayer, faith, and zeal being put forth on the part 
of the Church—the same blessing of the Holy 
Spirit will be vouchsafed 


PERMANENT BENEFITS TO THE CHURCH. 315 

On the whole question as to what permanent 
benefits remain to the Church from the dispensa¬ 
tion of the Spirit, we contend that every thing 
substantial implied in the gift of the Holy Ghost 
remains unimpaired. "Whatever is necessary to 
the holiness of the individual, to the spiritual life 
and ministering gifts of the Church, or to the 
conversion of the world, is as much the heritage 
of the people of God in the latest days as in the 
first. We do not see that the miraculous effects 
which followed the Pentecost are promised to all 
ages and all people, and therefore we do not look 
for them to reappear; but we feel satisfied that 
he who does expect the gift of healing and the 
gift of tongues, or any other miraculous manifes¬ 
tation of the Holy Spirit, in addition to those 
substantial blessings of which these were, as we 
have said, the ushers and the heralds, has ten 
times more scriptural ground on which to base 
his expectation, than have they for their unbelief 
who do not expect supernatural sanctifying 
strength for the believer, supernatural aid in 
preaching, exhortation, and prayer, for pastors 
and gifted members, and supernatural converting 
power upon the minds of those who are yet of 
the world. 


316 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


CHAPTER VI. 

PRACTICAL LESSONS. 

At one time we meant to dwell at considerable 
length upon practical lessons connected with our 
subject; but this book is already larger than we 
wished it to be, and we will therefore touch only 
three topics. We may learn a lesson on the 
source of power; one on the way to obtain 
power ; and one on the scale on which our 
expectations of success should be framed. 

In the application of any instrument, no error 
can be more fatal than one that affects the source 
of power. To recur to an illustration before 
used, any reasoning upon explosive weapons 
which assumed elasticity to be the source of 
power, must lead completely astray. If this is to 
be noted in all things, it is especially to be noted 
in what affects the regeneration of the world. In 
merely natural processes, persons proposing to 
affect the sentiments of mankind must depend 
largely on their influence, their wealth, and their 


i’EACTICAL LESSONS. 


317 


facilities. Christians frequently permit themselves 
to fall into a state of mind in which the want 
of all or any of these is taken to be fatal to their 
prospects of success, and the acquisition of them 
to be the first step toward making any impression. 
But wealth, influence, and facilities, however 
great, never yet secured results in the spiritual 
conversion of men; while the most notable 
triumphs of Christianity have often been gained 
in the total absence of them all. 

Others, or the same men at different times, 
would rather allow their hopes to rest on order, 
talent, or truth. But neither are these the source 
of power. Order is as necessary in Christianity 
as are bones, ligaments, and skin in a man: tal¬ 
ent is as necessary as brain, and truth as blood. 
But you may have all these, and have a paralytic; 
ay, have them all, and have but a corpse. You 
must have both the breathing spirit and that in¬ 
describable something that we call “ power.” In¬ 
deed, the order of the Christian Church ought to 
be such, her outward framework so constructed, 
that she shall not be as a building, which, though 
it looks more cheerful when there is life within, 
yet will stand when there is none; but rather as 
a body, which falls the moment the spirit forsakes 
it, and tends to decomposition. No Church ought 


318 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


to be otherwise constructed than in entire depend¬ 
ence on the presence of the living Spirit in all 
her ministerial arrangements. Her frame ought 
to answer to no definition that would suit an in¬ 
organic body; but to answer exactly to the cele¬ 
brated definition of an organic one; namely, 
“ that wherein every part is mutually means and 
end.” The pervading presence of the Spirit 
should be assumed, so that, if it be absent, the 
pains of death shall instantly take hold upon her, 
and the cry be extorted, “ Lord, save, or I perish!” 

We must again recall to mind that most won¬ 
derful silence of ten days—that long, long pause 
of the commissioned Church in sight of the per¬ 
ishing world. Never should the solemnity of that 
silence pass from the thoughts of any of God’s 
people. It stands in the very fore-front of our 
history—the Lord’s most memorable and affecting 
protest beforehand, that no authority under hea¬ 
ven, that no training, that no ordination could 
qualify men to propagate the gospel, without the 
baptism of the Holy Ghost. Each successive day 
of those solemn and silent ten, the perishing world 
might have knocked at the door of the Church, 
and asked, “What waitest thou for, 0 bride of 
the ascended Bridegroom? Why dost thou not 
say, ‘Come?’ Why leavest thou us to slumber 
on uncalled, unwarned, unblessed, whilst thou, 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


319 


with thy good tidings, art tarrying inactive there? 
What waitest thou for?” and every moment the 
answer would have been, “We are waiting to be 
indued with power from on high;’ we are waiting 
to be ( baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire/ ” 
This is the one and the only source of our power. 
Without this, our wealth, influence, facilities, are 
ships of war and ammunition without guns or 
men: our order, talent, truth, are men and guns, 
without fire. We want in this age, above all 
wants, fire, God’s holy fire, burning in the hearts 
of men, stirring their brains, impelling their emo¬ 
tions, thrilling in their tongues, glowing in their 
countenances, vibrating in their actions, expand¬ 
ing their intellectual powers more than can ever 
be done by the heats of genius, of argument, or 
of party; and fusing all their knowledge, logic, 
and rhetoric into a burning stream. Every acces¬ 
sory, every instrument of usefulness, the Church 
has now in such a degree and of such excellence as 
was never known in any other age; and we want 
but a supreme and glorious baptism of fire to ex¬ 
hibit to the world such a spectacle as would raise 
ten thousand hallelujahs to the glory of our King. 

Let but this baptism descend, and thousands of 
us who, up to this day, have been but common¬ 
place or weak ministers, such as might easily pass 
from the memory of mankind, would then become 


320 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


mighty. Men would wonder at us, as if we had 
been made anew; and we should wonder, not at 
ourselves, but at the grace of God which could 
thus transform us. 

Suppose we saw an army sitting down before a 
granite fort, and they told us that they intended 
to batter it down: we might ask them, “How?” 
They point to a cannon-ball. Well, but there is 
no power in that: it is heavy, but not more than 
half a hundred, or perhaps a hundred weight: if 
all the men in the army hurled it against the fort, 
they would make no impression. They say, “No; 
but look at the cannon.” Well, there is no power 
in that. A child may ride upon it, a bird may 
perch in its mouth: it is a machine, and nothing 
more. “But look at the powder.” Well, there 
is no power in that: a child may spill it, a sparrow 
may peck it. Yet this powerless powder and pow¬ 
erless ball are put into the powerless cannon: one 
spark of fire enters it; and then, in the twink¬ 
ling of an eye, that powder is a flash of lightning, 
and that ball a thunderbolt, which smites as if it 
had been sent from heaven. So is it with our 
Church machinery at this day: we have all the 
instruments necessary for pulling down strong¬ 
holds, and 0 for the baptism of fire! 

As to the way in which this power may be ob- 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


321 


tained, here we have only to recall the lesson of 
the ten days—“They continued with one accord 
in prayer and supplication.” Prayer earnest, 
prayer united, and prayer persevering—these are 
the conditions; and these being fulfilled, we shall 
assuredly be “endued with power from on high.” 
We should never expect that the power will fall 
upon us just because we happen once to awake and 
ask for it. Nor have any community of Chris¬ 
tians a right to look for a great manifestation of 
the Spirit, if they are not all ready to join in sup¬ 
plication, and, “with one accord,” to wait and 
pray as if it were the concern of each one. The 
murmurer who always accounts for barrenness in 
the Church by the faults of others, may be as¬ 
sured that his readiest way to spiritual power, if 
that be his real object, lies in uniting all, as one 
heart, to pray without ceasing. 

Above all, we are not to expect it without per¬ 
severing prayer. Prayer which takes the fact 
that past prayers have not yet been answered, as 
a reason for languor, has already ceased to be the 
prayer of faith. To the latter, the fact that 
prayers remain unanswered, is only evidence that 
the moment of the answer is so much nearer. 
From first to last, the lessons and example of our 
Lord all tell us that prayer which cannot perse¬ 
vere, and urge its plea importunately, and renew, 


322 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


and renew itself again, and gather strength from 
every past petition, is not the prayer that will 
prevail. 

When John in the Apocalypse saw the Lamb 
on the throne, before that throne were the seven 
lamps of fire burning, “ which are the seven Spirits 
of God sent forth into all the earth ;” and it is only 
by waiting before that throne of grace that we be¬ 
come imbued with the holy fire; but he who waits 
there long and believingly will imbibe that fire, 
and come forth from his communion with God, 
bearing tokens of where he has been. For the 
individual believer, and, above all, for every la¬ 
borer in the Lord’s vineyard, the only way to gain 
spiritual power is by secret waiting at the throne 
of God for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Every 
moment spent in real prayer is a moment spent 
in refreshing the fire of God within the soul. We 
said before that this fire cannot be simulated: no¬ 
thing else will produce its effects. No more can 
the means of obtaining it be feigned. Nothing 
but the Lord’s own appointed means, nothing but 
“ waiting at the throne,” nothing but keeping the 
heart under “the eyes of the Lamb,” to be again, 
and again, and again penetrated by his Spirit, 
can put the soul into that condition in which it is 
a meet instrument to impart the light and power 
of God to other men. 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


323 


When a lecturer on electricity wants to show an 
example of a human body surcharged with his fire, 
he places a person on a stool with glass legs. The 
glass serves to isolate him from the earth, because 
it will not conduct the fire—the electric fluid: 
were it not for this, however much might be poured 
into his frame, it would be carried away bv the 
earth; but, when thus isolated from it, he retains 
all that enters him. You see no fire, you hear no 
fire; but you are told that it is pouring into him. 
Presently you are challenged to the proof—asked 
to come near, and hold your hand close to his per¬ 
son : when you do so, a spark of fire shoots out 
toward you. If thou, then, wouldst have thy soul 
surcharged with the fire of God, so that those who 
come nigh to thee shall feel some mysterious in¬ 
fluence proceeding out from thee, thou must draw 
nigh to the source of that fire, to the throne of 
God and of the Lamb, and shut thyself out from 
the world—that cold world, which so swiftly steals 
our fire away. Enter into thy closet, and shut to 
thy door, and there, isolated, “before the throne/' 
await the baptism: then the fire shall fill thee; 
and when thou comest forth, holy power will at¬ 
tend thee, and thou shalt labor, not in thine own 
strength, but “with demonstration of the Spirit 
and with power." 

As this is the only way for an individual to 


324 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


obtain spiritual power, so is it the only way for 
Churches. Prayer, prayer, all prayer—mighty, 
importunate, repeated, united prayer; the rich 
and the poor, the learned and the unlearned, the 
fathers and the children, the pastors and the peo¬ 
ple, the gifted and the simple, all uniting to cry 
to God above, that he would come and affect them 
as in the days of the right hand of the Most High, 
and imbue them with the Spirit of Christ, and 
warm them, and kindle them, and make them as 
a flame of fire, and lay his right hand mightily on 
the sinners that surround them, and turn them in 
truth to him. Such united and repeated suppli¬ 
cations will assuredly accomplish their end, and 
“the power of God” descending will make every 
such company as a band of giants refreshed with 
new wine. 

If the source of our power, and the way to 
obtain it, be so plain, how can it be that the 
“tongue of fire” is so rare ? What are the hin¬ 
drances? Is it because, as many would seem 
to think, nothing is so difficult to obtain as the 
grace of the Holy Spirit? We often hear it 
said, All effort must be unsuccessful without the 
blessing of God, without the accompanying power 
of the Spirit; and the tone used indicates that 
it is therefore proper not to look for any great 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


325 


results, as if the accompanying power of the 
Spirit was the only thing not to be counted upon. 
The recognition of our impotency without the 
Spirit, and of the absolute necessity of his pre¬ 
sence and his power, is as needful as the recogni¬ 
tion of the fact that, without sunshine and rain, 
all labor and all skill would fail to preserve the 
human race for one season. But the sunshine 
and the rain are precisely the things which cost 
nothing, and on which we may constantly depend. 
So it is with the baptism and the power of the 
Holy Spirit. Freer than the air we breathe, 
freer than the rich sunbeams, freer than any of 
God’s other gifts, because it is the one which has 
cost him most, and which blesses his children 
most, that gift is ever at hand; and when we 
have done what the Lord lays upon us to do, it 
is dishonoring to him to cherish a secret feeling 
as if he, being good, not evil, was backward to 
pour out his Spirit, and to do good to his children. 

This feeling of unbelief, wherever cherished, 
must, on the principles of the gospel, be fatal to 
all power. He alone who magnifies the freeness, 
the fulness, and the present efficacy of the Lord’s 
grace, can by the Holy Ghost accomplish wonders. 
Trust, firm trust, straightforward, childlike trust, 
is the everlasting condition of all cooperation with 
28 


326 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


God. He will not use, lie will not bless, be will 
not inhabit the heart that, at the moment when 
it offers him a request, says, “ I doubt thee.” 

In this age of faith in the natural, and disin¬ 
clination to the supernatural, we want especially 
to meet the whole world with this credo , “ I be¬ 
lieve in the Holy Ghost.” I expect to see saints 
as lovely as any that are written of in the Scrip¬ 
tures—because I believe in the Holy Ghost. I 
expect to see preachers as powerful to set forth 
Christ evidently crucified before the eyes of men, 
as powerful to pierce the conscience, to persuade, 

*.o convince, to convert, as any that ever shook the 
multitudes of Jerusalem, or Corinth, or Rome— 
because I believe in the Holy Ghost. I expect to 
see Churches, the members of which shall be 
severally endued with spiritual gifts, and every 
one moving in spiritual activity, animating and 
edifying one another, commending themselves to 
the conscience of the world by their good works, 
commending their Saviour to it by a heart-engag¬ 
ing testimony—because I believe in the Holy 
Ghost. I expect to see villages where all the 
respectable people are now opposed to religion, 
the proprietor ungodly, the nominal pastor world¬ 
ly, all that take a lead set against living Chris¬ 
tianity—to see such villages summoned, disturbed, 
divided, and then reunited, by the subduing of 


PRACTICAL LESSONS 


327 


the whole population to Christ—because I believe 
in the Holy Ghost. I expect to see cities swept 
from end to end, their manners elevated, their 
commerce purified, their politics Christianized, 
their criminal population reformed, their poor 
made to feel that they dwell among brethren— 
righteousness in the streets, peace in the homes, 
an altar at every fireside—because I believe in 
the Holy Ghost. I expect the world to be over¬ 
flowed with the knowledge of God; the day to 
come when no man shall need to say to his neigh¬ 
bor, “ Know thou the Lord,” but when all shall 
know him, “from the least unto the greatest;” 
east and west, north and south, uniting to praise 
the name of the one God and the one Mediator— 
because I believe in the Holy Ghost. 

Unbelief and neglect of prayer generally go 
together as preventives of spiritual power. Let 
all of us who are painfully conscious that the re¬ 
sults just indicated will never be attained by the 
instrumentality of men, in the condition in which 
we are, simply ask ourselves, How long, how 
often, how importunately have we waited at the 
throne of the Saviour for the outpouring of the 
Spirit ? Let our closets answer. “ The eyes of 
the Lamb,” that are looking through us now, 
have noted. 0 ! is it any wonder that ofttimes 


328 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


we have been powerless, and ofttimes have had 
hut “ a little strength ?” 

Want of true faith and neglect of prayer are 
sure to make place for faith in the instrument, 
instead of in the power. When we are not living 
near the throne, our minds become occupied with 
questions of order, of talent, or of truth; or, if 
we sink into yet a lower state, with questions of 
facility, or influence, or wealth. This Church 
reform will be followed by great good : the clear 
development of such or such a doctrine would 
bring us revival: more lustre or strength of tal¬ 
ent in the ministry would insure progress : we 
only wait the removal of such and such hin¬ 
drances to open this door; for the supply of pecu¬ 
niary means, and we shall see good done there; 
or for the accession to the Church of some person 
of influence, and God’s work will prosper yonder. 
Faith is sadly wasted when bestowed on such 
things. Give them their right value—never un¬ 
derrate them—place them where God has placed 
them; but the fact that you trust in them shows 
that your heart is wrong. Wait not for these— 
for the power is not in them—but for the bap¬ 
tism of fire. 

Among the hindrances which will prevent any 
one from having the “ tongue of fire,” none acts 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 329 

more directly than any misuse of the “tongue” 
itself. If the door of the lips be not guarded, if 
uncharitable or idle speech be indulged, if politi¬ 
cal or party discussion be permitted to excite 
heats, if foolish “ talking or jesting” be a chosen 
method of display, it is not to be supposed that 
the same tongue will be the medium wherein the 
sacred fire of the Spirit will delight to dwell. 
Who has ever worn at the same time the reputa¬ 
tion of a trifler and of a man powerful to search 
consciences ? 

Another fatal hindrance is any kind of sensual 
indulgence. Whatever gives the least ascend¬ 
ency to the body over the spirit, must gradually 
subdue and ultimately extinguish the fire in the 
heart. This applies to all sloth, to every luxu¬ 
rious habit, every artificial appetite, and all the 
pleasures of the table. It is not a little remark¬ 
able that while, at the day of Pentecost, the peo¬ 
ple, on seeing the excitement and animation of 
the Christians, said, “They are filled with new 
wine,” Paul himself says to us, “ Be not drunk 
with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with 
the Spirit.” In both these cases there is a sug¬ 
gestion, however indirect, yet unquestionably a 
suggestion of some analogy between the condition 
28 * 


830 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


oi being “ drunk with wine, 77 and that of being 
“ filled with the Spirit. 77 

Nor do we need to seek far for the grounds of 
that analogy. To men of the world wine is a re¬ 
sort when they want something above their na¬ 
tural strength of mind or body, and in it they 
seek three things—strength, cheering, and mental 
elevation. Under its influence they will do more 
work than they could otherwise : they will cast 
off their cares, and their mental powers will reach 
a state which they themselves call “ inspiration/ 7 
That worldly orators, even of the highest reputa¬ 
tion, often seek in wine such animation of their 
powers as is necessary to great success, is only 
too well known. The physical tendency to seek 
elevation in such a source cannot be even slightly 
yielded to, without fatally affecting the “ tongue 
of fire/ 7 

Every Christian who wishes to retain the life 
of God in his soul, must hold all the enjoyments 
of the table under a strict law of regard to health 
and to temperance. For strength, for cheering, 
and for mental elevation, such as an extraordinary 
affliction or public effort may demand, he must 
look alone to power from on high—to the strength, 
and comfort, and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. 
The bare idea of seeking any of these in 
wine implies a heart already far fallen into the 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


331 


bondage of the flesh. Even without going so 
far, one may easily pass the bounds of modera¬ 
tion, and drink, not for health, but for pleasure. 
If the man who drinks to intoxication is miser¬ 
able and pitiable, he who has learned the bad se¬ 
cret of “ how far he can go ” and who even acts 
upon it, although he may never be drunk, is daily 
intemperate. In one aspect, his social influence 
is the most dangerous of all; for while one who 
totally abstains, and one who drinks under a rigid 
rule of regard for health and moderation, may 
each contend that they are setting the wisest ex¬ 
ample that can be set, and while the drunkard 
may truly say that his very excess is a warning to 
all about him, he who habitually shows that he 
drinks as much as is safe, is a lure and an entice¬ 
ment to push indulgence as far as it can be done 
without wreck of character. 

Another fatal hindrance is what may be called 
11 aiming at literary effect.” When preaching, 
praying, or any other religious exercise of the 
tongue, is ruled by the idea of composition, it 
loses the character of a Divine gift. Under that 
idea, utterance especially is by the aid of the 
Holy Spirit. With those who look at Christian 
preaching as an exercise of natural talent, we 
enter into no discussion. We speak only to those 


332 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


who are seeking the “tongue of fire;” who be¬ 
lieve that real Christian preaching is effected only 
by the help of God. To them and to ourselves 
we say, that nothing will more surely steal away 
the fire from our sentences than anxiety to de¬ 
liver them just as they were precomposed, or to 
precompose them with studious regard to literary 
grace. Study of style, of words, of the force, 
forms, and laws of language, we of course recom¬ 
mend. Efforts on the part of every one to gain 
the best style of which his nature admits—the 
tersest, strongest, clearest, briefest—we equally 
recommend. Seeking, like Bunyan, for “ picked 
and packed words,” is the instinct of a teacher. 
Even the study of the art of speaking, against 
which the vulgar prejudice is so strong, we would, 
with Wesley and Whitefield, encourage. Mouth¬ 
ing elocutionists may have brought it into dis¬ 
repute, but that is no reason why hundreds of us 
should be maimed in health before mid-life by 
public speaking, when we might have done as 
much work, and done it better, without the least 
injury, had we availed ourselves of the science 
of those who have philosophically studied and 
taught upon the voice.* 

* It is often assumed that speaking is a natural ex¬ 
ercise, and therefore needs no instruction. The word 
“ speaking” covers a fallacy. Conversation in a mode- 



PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


333 


While, however, we contend that it is the 
duty of all who take any part in teaching, to 
labor to the uttermost for every qualification 
helpful to their work, two things are to be for 
ever and guardedly shut out. The one is, aiming 
at giving intellectual pleasure, instead of produc¬ 
ing religious impression; the other, being care¬ 
ful about words in the pulpit, so as to interfere 
with dependence upon God for utterance. In 
the study, attention to style ought to be with a 
view, not to beauty, but to power. In the pulpit, 
all thought of style is thought wasted, and'even 
worse. The gift of prophesying in its very ideal 
excludes relying for utterance upon a manuscript 
or upon memory. It is the delivery of truth by 
the help of God. The feeling of every man stand- 

rate tone, and at short intervals, is a natural exercise 
of the voice: public speaking, in an elevated tone, and 
for an hour together, is an artificial one. Except in 
very rare cases of persons singularly favored by nature, 
this artificial exercise is never performed with the ease 
of the natural one ; and how often it impairs, and even 
destroys health, is too notorious to need any mention. 
Such writers as Mr. Cull and Dr. Rush show that under 
proper training public speaking may become as easy and 
as healthy for persons of sound organs as singing is; 
and to the neglect of this we owe the loss, in their 
prime, of many of the best and ablest preachers that 
ever lived. 



334 


THE TONGUE OE FIRE. 


iog up in the Lord’s name ought to he, “I am 
not here to acquit myself well, nor to deliver a 
good discourse; but, after having made my best 
efforts to study and digest the truth, I am here 
to say just what God may enable me to say, to be 
enlarged or to be straitened, according as He 
may be pleased to give me utterance or not.” 

With this feeling of the preacher all appear¬ 
ances ought to correspond. It ought to be mani¬ 
fest that, while he has done what in him lies to 
be thoroughly furnished, he is trusting for utter¬ 
ance - to help from above, and not insuring it by 
natural means—either a manuscript or memory. 
We put these two together, because we do not 
see that any distinction really exists between 
them. The plea that the manuscript is more 
honest than memoriter preaching, has some force, 
but certainly not much; for he that reads from 
his memory is, to the feeling and instinct of his 
hearers, as much reading as he who reads from 
his manuscript. In neither case are the thoughts 
and feelings gushing straight from the mind, and 
clothing themselves as they come. The mind is 
taking up words from paper or from memory, and 
doing its best to animate them with feeling. 
Even intellectually, the operation is essentially dif¬ 
ferent from speaking, and the difference is felt by 
all. For literary purposes, for intellectual gratifi- 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


335 


cation, both have a decided advantage over speak¬ 
ing; but for the purposes of pleading, entreat¬ 
ing, winning, and creating a sense of fellowship; 
for impelling and arousing, for doing good, speak¬ 
ing is the natural, this is the Creator’s, instru¬ 
ment. 

We never say, nor think of saying, that God 
will not bless sermons read, either from the man¬ 
uscript or from the memory; for we are sure that 
both these modes are resorted to by holy and 
earnest servants of his, who seek his blessing, and 
obtain it to the saving of many souls. All we 
say of reading, either from the manuscript or the 
memory, is that it is not scriptural preaching. It 
is not ministering after the mode of pentecostal 
Christianity: it is a departure from scriptural 
precedent, an adoption of a lower order of public 
ministration, and a solemn declaration that secur¬ 
ity of utterance gained by natural supports, is pre¬ 
ferred over a liability to be humiliated by trust¬ 
ing to the help of the Lord. It has its clear ad¬ 
vantages, and its clear losses. It secures a gain 
of elegance, at the cost of ease—of finish, at the 
cost of freedom—of precision, at that of power— 
and of literary pleasure, at that of religious im¬ 
pressiveness. 

A literary ideal of preaching is vicious. Half- 
educated people pride themselves on admiring 


336 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE 


what they consider intellectual, or “ splendid/' 
To men of real mind and real education, aiming 
at literary effect is as distasteful, on the one 
hand, as are traces of carelessness, looseness, or 
vulgarity, on the other. Men of great talent or 
refinement, when speaking great truths, under 
holy inspiration, must be eloquent or pleasing. 
But an “ intellectual treat” is far from being the 
ideal of preaching. We have heard efforts of 
this kind greatly praised, even by aged and ven¬ 
erable ministers, which, when we look back upon 
them, after years have elapsed, we feel ought not 
to have been called sermons at all. They were 
discourses which showed how a certain subject 
could be treated; but which were never meant to 
do any work. An acute and profound philoso¬ 
pher, looking upon the pulpit from the Chair of 
the Historical Professor, treats this point in the 
following remarkable words: 

“ Compare, I pray you, gentlemen, the sacred 
eloquence of the sixth century with modern pul¬ 
pit eloquence, even in its most palmy days in the 
seventeenth century. I said just now, that in 
the seventh and eighth centuries the character 
of literature had been that it ceased to be a lite¬ 
rature—that it had become in fact a power; that 
in writing and speaking men concerned themselves 
only with positive and immediate results; that 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


337 


they sought neither science nor intellectual plea¬ 
sure ; and that on this account the age had pro¬ 
duced nothing hut sermons or similar works. 
This fact, which shows itself in literature in gen¬ 
eral, is imprinted upon the sermons themselves. 
Those of modern times have a character evidently 
more literary than practical. The orator aspires 
much more after beauty of language, after the 
intellectual satisfaction of his auditory, than to 
act upon the deeps of their souls, to produce real 
effects, notable reforms, efficacious conversions. 
Nothing of this sort—nothing of the literary cha¬ 
racter in the sermons of which I have just been 
speaking to you: not one thought of expressing 
themselves nicely, of combining images and ideas 
with art. The orator goes to the point: he wants 
to do a work : he turns and turns again in the 
same circle: he has no fear of repetition, of fa¬ 
miliarity, not even of vulgarity. He speaks 
briefly, but recommences every morning. This 
IS NOT SACRED ELOQUENCE: IT IS RELIGIOUS 
POWER. 

Whenever we are tempted to think that fruit- 


* Guizot’s “Histoire de la Civilisation” vol ii., p. 24. 
Sixth Paris Edition. 

29 



338 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


fulness is only to be looked for in connection with 
superior attainments, tlie image of Peter preach¬ 
ing: in Jerusalem, and of that vast multitude 
in tears before him, should rise into our view. 
With what reverence, not unmixed with sorrow, 
do we often look back on preachers of days now 
gone, perhaps on some whom our own ears have 
blessed when we heard them; but more on those 
of whose mighty voices we have caught faint 
echoes, sounding in the bosoms of hoary men 
who heard them in their youth, and have never 
ceased to hear them, though their tongues have 
long been silent! When noting our own poor 
efforts; when seeing how tamely the precepts of 
Sinai or the songs of Bethlehem have fallen upon 
men from our lips; seeing that, after our closest 
thinking, we have seemed as those who beat the 
air; that, after seeking converts, we have only 
gained credit; that, when looking for multitudes 
to be seized with the thought, “ What must I 
do to be saved ?” we have only sent them away 
to discuss our faults or our merits, with perchance 
here and there a heart touched and contrite;— 
when years have thus passed away, and no strong¬ 
hold of sin brought down, no province completely 
conquered from the Prince of darkness, no great 
awakening to show that there was a power and 
a God in the midst of the Church;—when we 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


339 


have seen all this, and much more alike thereto, 
has not our disposition often been to open a cal¬ 
culation as to our own abilities and the difficulties 
before us, concluding, on the whole, that such as 
we need not expect to do things which only the 
mighty could do? How could lips like ours 
move mankind ? True, apostles and prophets 
moved them. True, Whitefield and Wesley, and 
hundreds of their coadjutors, near to our days, 
and in our own country, moved them. But then 
they were the wonders of their age, the seraphim 
of earth. But what made them seraphim ? 
They were once no mightier than others as to 
converting souls. Unbaptized with fire, or but 
slightly touched, their tongues might have 
charmed, fascinated, set the world discussing their 
gifts and extolling their abilities \ but they would 
never have shot fires into the souls of men, burned 
by which the stolid would roar, and the stoical 
melt, the sedate smite upon his breast, and the 
corrupt cleanse himself “from all filthiness of 
the flesh and of the spirit.” Perhaps without 
the baptism of fire they would never have gained 
even the airy fame of orators. Their very elo¬ 
quence may have come chiefly from the Spirit 
of God. At all events, it was that fire which 
raised the orator into the apostle, and made their 


340 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


words sound as if Christ’s first messengers were 
risen from the dead. 

The spectacle of Peter preaching at Jerusalem 
answers ten thousand arguments of unbelief. 
Who is that Galilean peasant, and who are that 
group beside him ? They are men of like pas¬ 
sions with ourselves. In nature, in gifts, in early 
opportunities, they cannot be ranked above the 
average of mankind. Even though they have 
been favored with the personal teaching and 
society of Christ for three whole years, they had 
not, up to this period, shown any extraordinary 
superiority of character. They have not been 
even without faults : they have had their disputes 
among themselves, their unbelief, their faint¬ 
heartedness, their strifes about the things of the 
world, their u false brethrenyet are they en¬ 
dued with a power of speech which passes all 
previously conceived reach of eloquence. 

Is it rational, when looking up to the Spirit 
which wrought this in them, to doubt whether or 
not it is within his power to baptize his servants 
now living with such a baptism as would change 
the ordinary into the extraordinary, the feeble 
into the mighty ? Whether is it easier for Him 
to say, “ Speak with many tongues,” or to say, 
il I will give thee a mouth and wisdom which all 
thine adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 311 

to resist ?” The former He has said, and com¬ 
mon men at once received the power; the latter 
He has said, and the same common men received 
the power. The former power we do not seek; 
hut all of us who have any heart for our Master’s 
service, any real intention to bear a part in the 
battle for the rescue of mankind, do desire in our 
very hearts, yea, long with mournful longing for 
a tongue of fire to tell of the love of the Saviour, 
and of the woe of sin, in such tones that the 
dead ear shall tingle. Is he not able to give the 
gift now as he gave it then ? Is the distrust of 
his power in this respect, which we find so com¬ 
mon ; this counting on our own impotence as a 
life-long companion; this speaking of what we 
ought to expect, as if our power must halt where 
our natural abilities halt; this thinking it really 
humble to expect little or no fruit; this thinking 
it meek to be happy without fruit;—is all this a 
fit answer to the baptism and a fit memorial of 
the tongues of fire ? Ho we not there see the 
Spirit answering for ever all doubts as to what 
ordinary men can be made, and proclaiming to all 
who would bear a message from God, that if they 
will only wait until they are “ endued with power 
from on high,” the effect which of all others will 
show the working of that power within them will 
29* 


342 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


be this—that they shall be raised above them¬ 
selves, and made to speak with a mouth and wis¬ 
dom which all who know them will know were not 
within their natural endowments or attainments? 

As TO THE SCALE ON WHICH OUR EXPECTA¬ 
TIONS SHOULD BE FRAMED. In our age, inven¬ 
tion by aid of natural science often seems to 
leap almost within the bounds of the supernatural. 
The impossibilities of our fathers are disappear¬ 
ing, one becoming a traffic and another a pastime. 
This has produced a state of mind in which no¬ 
thing seems impossible to natural science. Con¬ 
currently with this has arisen a tendency to 
bring spiritual progress and action within natural 
bounds. We are proud of our knowledge of the 
laws of the natural kingdom, and impatient of 
any phenomena which cannot be judged by them. 
Yet we do not object to judging the vegetable 
kingdom by laws totally different from those 
which we apply to the mineral, and the animal 
by laws totally different from what we apply to 
the vegetable, and the pervasive fluids* by laws 
different from those we apply to any of those 

* Water, air, light, electricity, etc., which cannot be 
conveniently classed under any of the three divisions— 
vegetable, mineral, and animal—usually taken to com¬ 
prise all natural objects. 



PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


348 


three kingdoms. To shrink from the marvels of 
vegetable life because they are unaccountable on 
chemical principles, or from those of instinct be¬ 
cause they are unfathomable mysteries on botani¬ 
cal principles, or from those of intellect because 
they are inexplicable by the laws of natural his¬ 
tory, or from the mysteries of light because they 
cannot be metaphysically analyzed and condi¬ 
tioned, would not be more unreasonable than to 
shrink from marvels in the spiritual kingdom, be¬ 
cause they cannot be judged by the laws of the 
natural. The supernatural has its own laws, and 
there is a supernatural. 

Instead of seeking to keep down spiritual 
movements to the level of natural explanation, in 
an age when natural marvels reach almost to mir¬ 
acles, we ought rather to be impelled to pray that 
they may put on a more striking character of 
supernatural manifestation. To-day more by far 
is necessary to carry into the mind of the multi¬ 
tude a clear conviction, u It is the hand of God,” 
than was necessary in other ages. When men 
saw few wonders from natural science, they readiry 
ascribed each wonder to Divine agency; but now 
that they are accustomed to see them daily, moral 
wonders must swell beyond all pretext of natural 
explanation, before they are felt to be from God. 
Is our footing firm ? Do we stand, or do we 


344 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


tremble ? Is Christianity to seat herself in the 
circle of natural agency, or to arise from the dust, 
and prove that there is a God in Israel? Are 
we to shrink from things extraordinary? Are 
we to be afraid of any thing that would make 
skeptical or prayerless men mock? Are we to 
desire that the Spirit shall use us and work in us 
just to such a degree as will never bring a sneer 
upon us—to pray, as a continental writer repre¬ 
sents some as meaning , “ Give us of the Holy 
Spirit ) but not too much; lest the people should 
say that we are full of new wine?”* 

To Christianity this is preeminently the age of 
opportunity. Never before did the world offer to 
her any thing like the same open field as at this 
moment. Even a single century from the pre¬ 
sent time, how much more limited was her access 
to the minds of men ! Within our own favored 
country a zealous preacher would then have been 
driven away from many a sphere, where now he 
would be hailed. On the continent of Europe, 
the whole of France has been opened to the 
preaching of the word, though under some re¬ 
straints. In Belgium, Sardinia, and other fields, 
it may now be said that the word of God is not 
bound. A century ago, the Chinese empire, the 


* Pasteur Augustin Bost. 



PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


345 


Mohammedan world, and Africa, containing be¬ 
tween them such a preponderating majority of the 
human race, were all closed against the gospel of 
Christ. China is open at several points. The 
whole empire of the Mogul is one field where 
opportunity and protection invite the evangelist. 
Turkey itself has been added to the spheres where¬ 
in he may labor. Around the wild shores of 
Africa, and far into her western, eastern, and 
southern interior, outposts of Christianity have 
been established. Wide realms beyond invite her 
onward. In the South Seas, several regions 
which a hundred years ago had not been made 
known by the voyages of Cook, are now regularly 
occupied. Could the churches of England and 
America send forth to-morrow a hundred thou¬ 
sand preachers of the gospel, each one of them 
might find a sphere, already opened by the strong 
hand of Providence, where a century ago none 
of them could have come without danger. 

The age, if not so remarkable foi agency as for 
opportunity, is yet very remarkable in this respect, 
when compared with any that has preceded it. 
While, on the one hand, we may well humble 
ourselves that, after so long a lapse of time, Chris¬ 
tian men are so few, and Christian operations so 
feeble, yet, measuring our own day with that of 
the generation that went before us, we may de 


346 


THE TONGUE OE FIRE. 


voutly magnify our God. Any one of the three 
great divisions of Christians in England—the Es¬ 
tablished Church, the Methodists, or the Dissenters 
—can this day furnish a number of faithful min¬ 
isters teaching the truth in the fear of God, and 
wishful to be the instruments in saving souls, 
supported by a number of spiritually-minded lay¬ 
men ready for every good work, such that, could 
they have been presented to John Wesley as the 
entire force of godly men in the country, would 
have made him feel as if the army for the whole 
world’s conquest was already raised. Scotland 
alone could now produce a host of loyal soldiers 
ready and able to wage the Redeemer’s war, such 
as in his day would have appeared to him almost 
sufficient to conclude the conquest. Ireland, too, 
would offer in this respect an amazing advance. 
In France, where, at the conclusion of the great 
Peace, scarcely any earnest preachers could be 
found, they may now be counted by hundreds; 
and in Germany, notwithstanding all its mists and 
its blights, not a few are growing up in vigor. 

Whether for the direct labors of the pulpit, for 
united movements of enlightenment, or the min¬ 
istering of gentle relief to the wants of human 
society, never, never did the sun shine upon so 
much agency, so much organization, so much 
liberty, so much earnest effort. Could we indulge 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


347 


ourselves by forming our own world, and only 
think of all the good men) good societies, and good 
works, on which the eye may rest, we might re¬ 
joice with unbroken joy, proclaim the full advent 
of the kingdom of God, and feel ourselves launched 
on a benign and brotherly age. But alas! alas! 
the vast world rolls on, a turbid and a freezing 
stream. When we look first at our own little 
land, then at the broad earth, we find, for one 
who fears God and works righteousness, there are 
thousands who forget God and work wickedness. 
Christian agency is not, therefore, as some amiable 
theorists would seem to think, chiefly for training 
those who are born Christians, or made Christians 
in baptism, and who need nothing more than 
Church ordinances, and an open heaven when 
they die. It is an agency raised up to carry out 
the great work of conversion which the Lord has 
begun within the lands of Christendom, and then 
bear onward the banner until every nation under 
heaven bows under it. 

It is also an age of progress, as much as of 
opportunity or of agency. What an advance has 
Christianity made, as to the impress upon our na¬ 
tional manners within the last century! On our 
highest classes and on our lowest, on those who 
love God and those who love him not, she has im¬ 
posed many restraints. The vices which remain 


348 . 


THE TONGUE OP FIRE. 


are every day made more hideous to the public 
eye. How different the amount of piety in offi¬ 
cers and men developed by the horrors of the late 
war, from what was ever known in an English 
army before! How different the spiritual condi- 
tion of many of our rural and manufacturing dis¬ 
tricts from what they were a century ago! What 
a change in the morals of the Court; in the tem¬ 
perance of private entertainments! How much 
more promising the aspect of Ireland! How much 
more animated the religion of Scotland! What 
an incalculable advance in America! And within 
that time the West Indies, Australia, New Zea¬ 
land, the Society Islands, the Sandwich Islands, 
the Friendly Islands, the Navigator’s Islands, a 
considerable part of Feejee, and tracts of Southern 
and Western Africa, may be written down as pro¬ 
vinces added to Christendom. Though in some 
of these places much ungodliness remains, yet in 
most of them a far more promising state of things 
exists than was known in any country between the 
first days of Christianity and the last century. 

In other countries, beginnings have been made 
and first-fruits gathered: as, for instance, in India, 
China, and Northern Africa. At the same time, 
every system of religion not calling itself Christian 
has decayed. Mohammedanism, Brahminism, 
Buddhism, and Paganism, have lost territory, ad- 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


349 


herents, and power. Altogether it may be ques¬ 
tioned whether even the progress of the first century 
has not been equalled, as to positive amount, by 
that of the last. But when we look at the agents, 
means, and facilities enjoyed during the last cen¬ 
tury compared with the first, and at the rapidity 
with which believers have multiplied themselves 
in both periods, we at once feel that, as to propa¬ 
gating power, in the face of adverse circumstances 
and small resources, there is no comparison be¬ 
tween them. 

It is, on the one hand, as wrong and as danger¬ 
ous to overlook the success which God has given 
to his word in the last age, or the unparalleled open¬ 
ings which promise to the Church future conquest, 
as it is, on the other, to repose on our present pos¬ 
sessions, as if the conquest was achieved. What 
has been done is enough to excite our liveliest 
gratitude; but if we dwell on it alone, we become 
enervated and careless. What remains to be done 
is enough to excite our deepest solicitude; but if 
we look at it alone, we become dispirited and pow¬ 
erless. Even in England every thing is stained: 
our commerce corrupt; our politics earthy; our 
social manners chiefly formed after the will of 
“the god of this world;” our streets crying shame 
upon us; our hamlets, many of them, dark, igno- 
30 


350 


/ 


/ 


■THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 

rant, and immoral; our towns debauched and 
drunken. 

Amid this much good exists, in which we do 
rejoice, yea, and will rejoice; hut 0, the evil, the 
evil is, day by day, breaking thousands of hearts, 
ruining thousands of characters, and destroying 
thousands of souls! Looking abroad beyond the 
one little sphere of Britain and America, which 
we proud boasters of the two nations are prone to 
look upon as being nearly the whole world—though 
we are not one-twentieth of the human race—how 
dreary and how lonely does the soul of the Chris¬ 
tian feel, as it floats in imagination over the rest 
of the earth! That Europe, so learned, so splen¬ 
did, so brave—what misery is by its fireside! what 
stains upon its conscience! what superstition, sto¬ 
icism, or despair around its death-beds! And 
yonder bright old Asia, where the “ tongue of fire” 
first spoke—how rare and how few are the scenes 
of moral beauty which there meet the eye! In¬ 
stead of the family, the seraglio: instead of reli¬ 
gion, superstition: instead of peace, oppression: 
instead of enterprise, war: instead of morals, cere¬ 
monies: instead of a God, idols: instead of re¬ 
finement and growth, corruption and collapse: 
here, there, thinly sown and scarcely within sight 
one of the other, a school, a book, a man of God 
—one star in a sky of darkness. And poor Africa! 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


351 


what is to become of the present generation of her 
sons? Thinly around her coasts are beginnings 
of good things; but 0! the blood and darkness 
and woe, the base superstition and the miserable 
cruelties, under which the majority of her youth 
are now trained, amid which her old men are go¬ 
ing down to the grave! 

All this existed a century ago, but was not then 
known as we know it now. The world is not yet 
explored by the Church, much less occupied; but 
the exploration at least is carried so far, that we 
know its plagues as our fathers knew them not; 
and if our hearts were rightly affected, we should 
weep over them as they never wept; for although 
the spread of Christianity has greatly multiplied 
the number of Christians, the increase of popula¬ 
tion has been such, that more men are sinning and 
suffering now than were a hundred years ago. 

Taking the forces of the Church, comparing 
them with the length and breadth of the world, 
and then asking, “Are these ever to be the means 
of converting all ?” we feel that only the promise 
of God could inspire such a hope. But that pro¬ 
mise is so confirmed, illustrated, and exalted by 
the success of the past century, that when we look 
back to the few faithful men in this country and 
in America, men in different circumstances and 
of different views, who then began in earnest to 


352 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


call tlie Churches to their work, and see how far 
their labors and those of their spiritual sons have 
advanced the kingdom of Christ beyond where it 
stood then, we are led to say, “ Suppose that all 
the good men, now loving God and desiring his 
glory, were but to be multiplied in equal ratio 
during the next century, as those few have been 
during the last century; what an amazing stride 
would be made toward the conversion of the whole 
world!” 

Is this too much to expect ? Are we to con¬ 
clude that the force of the animating Spirit is 
spent, and that an age of feebleness must succeed 
to one of power? To do so is fearfully to dis¬ 
believe at once the goodness and the faithfulness 
of our God. Some say that, because populations 
have become familiarized with the truths of the 
gospel, we are not to expect the same convert¬ 
ing effects as when those truths were new. If 
this be so, we had better make way for a genera¬ 
tion of rationalists and formalists, to prepare the 
ground again for spiritual cultivation ! Some say 
that, because the age is so educated, intellectual, 
scientific, and inquisitive, men are not so suscep¬ 
tible of the influence of Christianity. Then shall 
we wait for an age less enlightened and less edu¬ 
cated? Some say that the age is so unduly 
active, forcing enterprise and commerce to the 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


353 


point of absorbing every man, that religion is 
pushed aside. Must we then wait for a duller 
and more lethargic time ? Some say that the 
Lord does not give us great success lest we should 
be uplifted. Is it his way to promote humility 
by giving small results to great agencies, or by 
giving great results to small ones ? And would 
not results after the pentecostal scale make 
any of our agencies seem small ? These are 
miserable withes wherewith to bind the giant 
Church of God. Away with them every one ! 
After going round all the reasons which one 
hears ordinarily assigned for the greater direct 
success of preachers in the last century than now, 
our mind finds rest only in that one reason, 
which carries a world of rebuke and of humilia¬ 
tion to ourselves: they produced greater effects, 
simply because of the greater power of God 
within them. 

Every ray of gospel truth that exists in any 
man is on our side. All intelligence, all intel¬ 
lectual activity, all vigor of character, are more 
for us than their opposites would be. In fact, 
they are very much the fruit, the indirect and 
secondary fruit of the past triumphs of religion; 
for it is impossible that true godliness shall spread 
among any people, without stimulating their in- 
30 * 


354 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


tellectual and social energies. It is hard to 
imagine a satire on the gospel more bitter than 
that it should be powerful when new to men, and 
impotent when familiar; that it should be good 
for the half barbarous, but not for those whom 
itself had refined; capable of captivating the in¬ 
ert, but incapable of commanding the masculine 
and the energetic. We expect ages not less in¬ 
structed in Christian doctrine, but far more in¬ 
structed : not intellectually duller, but more 
active: not darker as to science and literature, 
but inconceivably brighter: not slower as to in¬ 
vention, enterprise, and progress, but more vigor¬ 
ous by far. And am I to return to “ the glorious 
gospel of the blessed God,” whereto I feel that I 
and mine, my kindred, my country, the race from 
which I have sprung, the lands in which I have 
travelled, are all indebted for their purest and 
brightest things—and say to it, “When these 
bright ages come, thou shalt lag behind, perhaps 
recollected as one of the infantine instructors of 
the world, but distanced by the progress of man ?” 
Let those who assign reasons for our want of 
fruitfulness which fairly sow the seeds of rational¬ 
ism, prepare to render an account when the fruit 
of their sowing comes to be reaped. 

There is a natural tendency in any movement 
to lose intensity as it gains surface. When god- 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


355 


liness becomes tbe habit of large numbers, it is 
not according to the laws of human nature that 
it should retain, in every individual, all the fer¬ 
vor which it must maintain, in order to exist at 
all, when it is the peculiarity of an extremely 
•few. But if this fact is to be recognized, it must 
be remembered that the disadvantage which it 
presents is easily overcome by the power of grace; 
and, indeed, a natural counterpoise to this sub¬ 
duing tendency in practical religion, is offered in 
an equally natural accumulative tendency. That 
decrease of distinction between the Church and 
the world which is so often noticed, does not 
wholly arise from the Church becoming less 
Christian, but partly also from the world be¬ 
coming less wicked. The testimony of a large 
number of decided men gradually and silently im¬ 
poses on the world a respect for Christian prin¬ 
ciples, till the world tacitly accepts many of its 
moral laws and social standards at the hands of 
the Church. Every concession of this kind is an 
advantage to those Christians who mean to con¬ 
quer all; while it is a seduction to those who 
repose in the idea of converting a small section 
of the people, leaving the rest to live in sin. 

Put the ungodly in a minority, then vice be¬ 
comes a social as well as a spiritual blemish, and 
religion an outward as well as an inward comfort. 


356 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


As the multitude of Christians goes on increasing, 
there is accumulative power of example, accumu¬ 
lative power of teaching, accumulative power of 
prayers, accumulative power of Christian training 
in families, accumulative power of purity in habits, 
all tending in the one direction—to bring the 
public sentiment under the dominion of Christ. 
Towns and villages exist in this country where, 
within the memory of living men, very few godly 
persons were to be found; but now one-tenth, 
one-seventh, and even one-fifth in some cases, of 
their adult population, are professing to follow 
Christ, and living more or less worthily of that 
profession. Can any man help feeling that the 
unconverted people in such a town are much 
more likely to be converted than those living 
where the proportion of the godly is not more 
than one in a hundred, or one in a thousand? 
Who could not feel—who would not practically 
acknowledge the feeling—of the accumulative 
power of Christian progress, if he had to decide 
in which of two towns his unconverted son should 
settle for life—one with a believer to every thou¬ 
sand of the population, or one with a believer to 
every ten ? He would instantly say, u In the 
latter place the prospects of my son's conversion 
are vastly greater than in the other." What we 
should feel in an individual case, we ought to 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


357 


feel on tlie great scale—to gather strength and 
hope, not feebleness, from past successes, and to 
become especially impatient of the continuance 
of sinners in those fields where notable triumphs 
of grace have already been achieved. What the 
Canaanites were to the Israelites of old, the un¬ 
converted dwelling in our towns and villages are 
to us at this day. They confuse and weaken us, 
they allure, they ensnare us, they lead our children 
astray, they rob us of the fruit of our schools, 
they damp the zeal of our young converts, they 
entice families into worldly practices, they tempt 
our tradesmen, they infect our churches; and 
never, until they are totally extirpated, can peace 
and righteousness flourish in our coasts. Impa¬ 
tient of their obstinacy everywhere, we ought to 
be especially so where victories, won by those who 
have preceded us, leave us comparatively little to 
do; for the up-hill fight has been fought, the 
vantage-ground gained, and now for the power to 
complete the triumph ! The entire conversion 
jf England and America, within the next fifty 
years, would not be so great a work for the Chris¬ 
tians now existing, as the progress made within 
the last hundred years has been for the Chris¬ 
tians then existing. Is it rational tb believe 
that God will less bless his servants in this nine¬ 
teenth century than in the one that is gone, if they 


358 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


be equally faithful ? or that he will shower on 
this generation of ours less marked benedictions 
than he did on the one to whom we are indebted 
for so much ? 

The single consideration of past progress suf¬ 
fices to prove that, on the ground of experience, 
we are not warranted to conclude that the con¬ 
version of the whole world is impossible. Much 
as may be argued from the slowness of the past 
progress of Christianity, the last century has so 
changed the aspect of affairs as now to cast the 
weight of the argument from experience decisively 
into the scale of hope. Many, however, will con¬ 
tinue to look upon any consistent expectation of 
the general conversion of men as illusory: the 
objections of some resting on their views of the 
constancy of human nature, certain, they think, 
hereafter as heretofore, to present great numbers 
of unconquerable opponents to holiness; while 
others take higher ground, and believe that the 
general conversion of our race is contrary to the 
purpose of God. 

When the question, “ Is the conversion of the 
whole world possible ?” is fairly put, the plain an¬ 
swer to it is obviously this : “ It is possible, unless 
it be contrary to the will of God.” If he has or¬ 
dained that it is not to be, an infinite obstacle op- 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


359 


poses it: if he has not so ordained, the obstacles 
which oppose it are finite, and therefore conquer¬ 
able. Christians can overcome all things but a 
decree of God. 

Has he, then, given us any declaration that he 
does not intend to renew the earth, as a whole, in 
righteousness ? We do not mean to hold any con¬ 
troversy with those who have deliberately adopted 
the view, that the Christian dispensation is a kind 
of interlude between the Lord’s lifetime upon 
earth and a future earthly reign, meanwhile, bear¬ 
ing witness in his name—a witness for the conver¬ 
sion of a few and the condemnation of the many. 
We leave them with the praise of being perfectly 
consistent in expecting small results from the 
preaching of the gospel, and with the responsi¬ 
bility of looking on that gospel in a light which 
warrants little faith. 

We deal with those who regard the gospel as 
bond fide “ good news” for every creature—“good 
news” which those who heard it before me were 
bound to tell to me—“good news” which I am 
bound to tell to every creature living, according 
to the extent of my opportunities—“ good news” 
to the effect that “ the grace of God, which bring- 
eth salvation to all men, hath appeared”—news 
which could not be told to me as good, if it left 
any doubt whether it was or was not for me— 


860 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


“good news” to every creature, “a gospel for 
thee.” 

We take the first two announcements by a 
preacher under the Christian dispensation, to 
audiences of sinners, as intended for our instruc¬ 
tion and imitation: “ Repent and be baptized, 
EVERY ONE of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
for the remission of sins :” “ God, having raised up 
his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning 
away every one of you from his iniquities.” 
Declarations less direct, personal, or comprehen¬ 
sive than these, we have no manner of authority 
to deliver. We are to “ command all men every¬ 
where to repent;” to call upon every one of them 
to believe; to assure every one of them that Christ 
is “ sent to bless him in turning him away from 
his iniquities.” 

Nor are we to make such proclamations under 
the feeling that, although it is our duty to do it, 
there is no intention on the part of God to second 
our testimony and give it effect. Hope in the 
result sustained the apostle in his work, accord¬ 
ing to his own avowal; for he says, 11 Therefore 
we both labor and suffer reproach, because we 
trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all 
men, specially of those that believe.” This trust 
in the God and Saviour of all was enough to ani- 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


361 


mate any man in labor and under reproach; and 
such a trust we should never cast away. 

The question, whether or not the conversions 
of the first ages ought to be looked back to by us, 
as a standard at which to aim, is settled by one 
of the passages already quoted. After joyfully 
describing the conversion of the Church in Ephe¬ 
sus, where “the word of the Lord” so “ mightily 
grew and prevailed,” St. Paul says, that God has 
done this, “that in the ages to come he 

MIGHT SHOW THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS 
GRACE, in his kindness toward us through Christ 
Jesus.” We are living in what were, then, “ the 
ages to come.” On us the light of those “ ex¬ 
ceeding riches of grace” is shining—shining for 
our encouragement—shining that we may believe 
that in heathen cities, where great Dianas are 
adored, we also shall see “the word of God 
mightily grow and prevail,” heathen rites aban¬ 
doned, bad books consumed, and the craft of idol- 
makers destroyed. 

While this collective number of conversions is 
given to us as an encouragement, the most re¬ 
markable of all individual conversions is placed 
before us in the same light. “ Howbeit,” says 
St. Paul, “ for this cause I obtained mercy, that 
in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long- 
31 


362 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


suffering, for a pattern to them, which should 
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting ” 
Thus we are deliberately forewarned to take the 
most singular conversion that ever occurred in 
the early Church, not as a discouragement because 
of its speciality, but as an intentional manifesta¬ 
tion of the wonderful grace of the Redeemer, by 
which every sinner in all ages, who would fain 
“find mercy,” may encourage himself. The per¬ 
secutor Paul, converted and forgiven, is for a pat¬ 
tern to individual believers in “ the ages to come.” 
The great multitude of “ children of wrath” in 
Ephesus who were made to “sit in heavenly 
places in Christ Jesus,” are also to us, of “ the 
ages to come,” a pattern of the “ exceeding riches 
of grace.” Whether our faith be tried in respect 
to the possibility of the conversion of an indi¬ 
vidual as unlikely as Saul, or of a number as great 
as the Church of Ephesus, in either case we 
should believe that the ancient grace is free and 
mighty this day. Thus trusting in “ God, who is 
the Saviour of all men,” we shall both cheerfully 
“ labor and suffer reproach.” 

The same relation which we have shown to 
exist between hope and labor, is also pointed out 
to us as existing between hope and prayer. “I 
exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, 
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


363 


made for all men.” Here no one doubts that we 
are literally commanded to pray for every human 
being; but if we did not carefully attend to the 
context, we might run away with a vague idea 
that we were only to pray as an expression of 
good-will, and that for temporal and national 
blessings, especially as allusion is made to “ kings, 
and all that are in authority •” that, in fact, the 
“ prayers, and supplications, and intercessions, 
and giving of thanks, for all men,” do not mean 
that we are to pray, supplicate, and intercede, 
that all men may be saved and come to the 
knowledge of the truth; for that would only be 
asking what God wills should never be, and 
therefore what could not be acceptable to him. 
But, as if expressly to anticipate this unbelief, 
the apostle adds, “ For this is good and acceptable 
in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have 
all men to be saved, and to come unto the know¬ 
ledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one 
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ 
Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, a testi¬ 
mony* in due time.” 

Here our encouragement in prayer, supplica¬ 
tion, and intercession for all men, is grounded 


* We give the marginal reading, which is a literal 
translation: the other is, “to be testified in due time.” 



364 


THE TONGUE OP EIRE. 


first on the clear declaration that such prayer is 
“ good and acceptable in the sight of God our 
Saviour ;”— u our Saviour” giving intensity to 
the expression, as if reminding us that he who 
has saved us must be one to whom it is good and 
acceptable that we should seek the salvation of 
all. It is further grounded on the express 
declaration of his will regarding others, that he 
u will have them to be saved, and to come unto 
the knowledge of the truth.” Here is not only 
the assurance that we are right in praying that 
they may be saved, but right in praying that the 
truth may be brought to all, and that they may be 
saved through its instrumentality; praying, in 
fact, for the universal diffusion of Christ’s gospel, 
and the universal salvation of men in consequence. 
It is further supported on the ground of the unity 
of God, the unity of the Mediator between God 
and men, and the unity of man as regarded by his 
mediating atonement: “ One God, and one Me¬ 
diator between God and men, the man Christ 
Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, a testi¬ 
mony in due time.” 

We have, then, the clear example of the first 
preachers, the express declaration that the early 
conversions were as a pattern for the ages to come, 
the statement that trust in God as the Saviour of 
all men was the animating strength under apos- 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


365 


tolic toil and shame, the command to pray for all, 
and the most formally stated warrant for such 
prayers boldly to lay hold upon the promises of God. 

Many who will admit that the scriptural argu¬ 
ment points in this direction, yet, looking at hu¬ 
man nature, the present condition of mankind, 
the proportion of Christian agency to population, 
and the past career of man, will, on the whole, 
conclude that the conversion of the world is not 
to be expected. They will also ask us how we 
can reconcile such an expectation with the free 
agency of man. We will no further answer them 
than by recalling the fact, that every additional 
conversion to some extent, however slight, changes 
the condition of society, and, in so doing, affects 
the motives which act upon the unconverted, 
throwing a greater weight upon the side of good¬ 
ness. A few more decided advances on the part 
of the Church, in some countries of Christendom, 
would cast a preponderating weight of social mo¬ 
tives on the side of godliness, leaving little to be 
contended against but the natural depravity of 
man’s heart, which, even in the purest condition 
of society, would be enough to demand the most 
zealous care for the conversion of each human 
being. 


31 * 


366 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


This bears first on the general question of natu¬ 
ral motives, next on the particular one as to re¬ 
conciling faith, for the general regeneration of 
men, with their free agency. We readily admit 
that, logically, we cannot reconcile them, and cer¬ 
tainly we are not anxious to attempt it. All the 
difficulties which meet us in soberly expecting the 
conversion of the entire world, equally meet us 
in soberly expecting the conversion of an entire 
family. Every question of free agency, motives, 
human nature, past experience, which enters into 
the one, enters into the other, though on a smaller 
scale. But it is only the scale that differs: the 
elements are the same. Yet who that has felt 
the faith and love of Christ within him, and has 
kindred dear to his own heart, has not again and 
again pleaded that they might all appear, “no 
wanderer lost, a family in heaven ?” Who does 
not feel that to exercise faith that such a prayer 
shall be answered, is good and wise, and accepta¬ 
ble to God ? In fact, all the difficulty exists as 
to faith for the conversion of any one individual. 

The difference between preaching the gospel 
with a full expectation of doing no more than 
saving small companies of saints from amid mul¬ 
titudes of sinners, on whose shipwreck no influ¬ 
ence is to be exercised beyond holding them a 
light to sink by, and of looking upon every con- 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


367 


verted man as one rescued from a common dan¬ 
ger, who is immediately to join in rescuing the 
rest—is such, that in the one case, when a little is 
accomplished, it is looked upon as what the gospel 
was sent to do; while, in the other case, every 
little is taken as but an earnest of the great, and 
the great as an earnest of the universal. While 
we aim at few, we shall win but few; for, that our 
successes shall take their proportions from our 
faith, is the universal law of the service of Christ. 

Should we be wrong in our views—should it be 
contrary to the design of our Lord to convert all 
our race by the preaching of his word and the 
outpouring of his Spirit—should it be his pur¬ 
pose to leave the earth much as it is until he 
concludes its mournful story in thunder-claps of 
judgment—should that consummation be nigh, 
and the last trumpet be already beginning to fill 
with the breath of the archangel, yet surely, if 
we, under the illusion of our belief, are found 
panting, praying, laboring, if by any means we 
might save some, that blast might cause us a 
pang for the multitudes whom it found unwarned; 
but no pang because we had been busy in warn¬ 
ing, exhorting, entreating; no pang because we 
had done so in faith that our Lord willed all men 
to come to the knowledge of the truth. 


368 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


Suppose, on tlie other hand, that there is even 
a possibility of our being right; that the grace 
of God which has appeared to us really is “good 
tidings” for every creature; that the truth so 
precious to our nation and to our own souls is not 
decreed away from any part of the human family 
by the great Saviour above us; that he does 
mean that literally every creature should hear it 
from the lips of his servants, that literally the 
whole earth should be filled with the knowledge 
of the Lord, that literally “the ages to come” 
should take the early conversions as the type of 
their expectations, and should embrace all men 
in their supplications and their labors : should all 
this be true, and we spend our strength in observ¬ 
ing the clouds, and the judgments, and the trum¬ 
pets, telling those who are calling the nations 
that they may call, but they will accomplish little 
thereby—as far as in us lies stealing the nerve 
from their arm and the fire from their voice; 
should we in the midst of this die, and find “ages 
to come” yet advancing, then, perhaps, we might 
feel as if the Scripture had been neglected by us, 
which says, “ He that observeth the wind shall 
not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall 
not reap.” Futurity, judgments, and providen¬ 
tial designs lie within the unshared province of 
God; and none need make it his chief concern to 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


369 


settle or to ascertain them. A world of sinning 
and suffering men, each one of them my own 
brother, calls on me for work, work, work. I may 
trust the future, and the time of restoring Israel, 
to better hands than mine. 

In hope, or without hope, let us be up and 
doing. Encouragements are on every hand, and 
so are menaces. The enlightened, the true, the 
zealous, are many; the wicked and the slothful 
are fearfully more. The number of the former 
has been growing by conversions, the number of 
the latter growing faster by the natural increase 
of population. The appliances for Christian pro¬ 
pagation are vast; the faith of many in their 
efficacy feeble. The doctrines of Christianity are 
known and prized by multitudes who never knew 
them before; but, on the other hand, there are few 
of the Churches, in the very heart of which those 
doctrines are not betrayed. One would rob us 
of the incarnation of God, another of the Spirit 
of God, another of an atonement, another of 
providence, another of prayer; some of regener¬ 
ating grace, some of ministerial unction, some of 
primitive fervor, some of a Lord's day: some 
would launch us on a sea of thought without an 
inspired guide; others on a moral universe with¬ 
out punishment for wrong: thus nearly every 
truth that distinguishes the system of Christianity 


370 


TIIE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


from earthly inventions, is attacked by mining or 
by battery. We are not sure but truth is some¬ 
times spoken when little good ensues: we are 
sure that error is never issued into the world 
without doing harm; and there are strong men 
now doing work over which, unless others, made 
stronger by the might of God, undo it, genera¬ 
tions to come will have reason to weep. For all 
who cannot bear to see the cross betrayed, the 
Holy Ghost grieved, the oracles of God degraded, 
the work of the Spirit in the human soul reduced 
to a process of motives and emotions, and every 
Divine tie that connects us, as a redeemed race, 
with a redeeming Father, skilfully cut asunder;— 
for those who are not prepared to see the Churches 
of England and America pass through blights 
such as have befallen the Churches of Switzer¬ 
land, Germany, and other Protestant regions of 
the Continent, this is a moment when the air 
seems full of trumpet-notes, when every step 
taken on doctrinal ground raises the echo of 
warning. And, alas! many who dogmatically 
repel error evaporate in intellectualism : others 
decay, under a silvered mildew of respectability; 
and others, professing to seek the old Christianity, 
content themselves with garnishing the sepulchre 
in which the Middle Ages buried her, instead of 
seeking that her first preachers, in the persons 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


371 


of other men, but in the u spirit and power” of 
Peters and Pauls, should be raised up once more! 

We will bless every laborer for any service done 
toward the maintenance and advance of the truth, 
for every good word spoken, every sound argu¬ 
ment uttered from the pulpit, every page of 
evangelical truth written, and every rebuke ad¬ 
ministered in any way to those who would falsify 
our faith; but let them be assured that, more 
than all other services, turning many away from 
iniquity will counterwork and confound attempts 
to reduce Christianity from a Divine to a human 
system. This is the practical answer to difficul¬ 
ties and objections. Let us only have multitudes 
of new-born Christians, fervent in faith and hope, 
full of love and good works, and rationalists may 
account for the phenomenon as they will; but 
the common conscience of mankind will feel that 
God is in it. u Beholding the man which was 
healed standing with them, they could say nothing 
against it.” 

The one reason for being zealous for Christian 
doctrine which so far surpasses all others that be¬ 
side it they become as nothing, is that given by 
St. Paul to Timothy: u Take heed unto thyself, 
and unto the doctrine : continue in them; for in 
doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them 
that hear thee.” What a motive ! Saving, first, 


372 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


ourselves—then, those that hear us : the sublime 
can go no farther! Here we have set before our 
hearts, soliciting us onward, motives which we 
acknowledge have already moved the very heart 
of the Godhead. To save !—as an instrument, 
it is true; but 0, how infinitely glorious, even as 
an instrument, to save! and that, not only our¬ 
selves, but others! While, on the one hand, 
guarding “the doctrine” is the only means of 
retaining saving power in the Church; on the 
other, no guard upon the doctrine will ever be 
effectual unless we can raise up a succession of 
saved men. 

Creeds, Catechisms, Confessions, are not to be 
treated as it is now the fashion in many quarters 
to treat them; but, when kept in their proper 
place, as human and fallible, and strong only 
when they accord with God’s holy oracles, they 
have a high utility. But the idea of relying upon 
these for conserving the truth in any Church, is 
as well-founded as would be the idea of relying 
on a good military code for defending a nation. 
An army of cowards would interpret any code 
down to their own level, and Churches and un¬ 
converted men will equally lower any confession 
of faith. For rescuing souls, for rebuking blas¬ 
phemy, for building up God’s holy Church, for 
glorifying the Saviour’s name on earth, for our 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


373 


own joy and crown of rejoicing, for the bliss of 
covering a multitude of sins, for the eternal de¬ 
light of having saved a soul from death, let us 
aim at one work—bringing sinners from darkness 
to light. Of all the records of praise which our 
merciful Lord will give his servants, who would 
not most covet that his record should be — u The 
law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was 
not found in his lips. He walked with me in 
peace and equity, and did turn many away 

FROM INIQUITY l” 

Ye that are lights and fathers in the ministry; 
whose very name is a power; whose tone decides 
that of many young evangelists; whose standard 
of faith and success regulates the practical ex¬ 
pectations of many humble Christians—0, show 
us the way to victory: lead us to downright con¬ 
quests over this cold and sinful world ! What if, 
ere ye go hence, ye should leave to your succes¬ 
sors a glorious tradition of multitudes broken 
under the power of the word; of notorious sin¬ 
ners suddenly transformed into bright examples 
of grace; of throngs of inquirers asking the way 
to heaven with tears; of Churches once dying 
easily, roused, through your instrumentality, to 
apostolic zeal ? If ye but leave behind you such 
traditions to be told, and told again, to children, 
32 


374 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


and to children's children, your u tongue of fire" 
will be multiplying itself in the homesteads of 
your people, when your voice has long been silent; 
and the fruit of your labo/will go on propagating 
itself, until the trump of the archangel sounds. 

Ye who are but entering on the work of the 
ministry, or are as yet young in its ranks, choose, 
among all those who have gone before you, whose 
fame you would prefer. Take the host of those 
who have trifled with the cross, with inspiration, 
with the fall and the redemption of man, with the 
work of the Spirit, or any of the other vital doc¬ 
trines of our religion; and if you find among 
them one man whose name, after ages, is dear to 
a nation, sacred in the homesteads of thousands 
to whose ancestors he was a blessing—then follow 
him. If you find among those who gave them¬ 
selves to intellectual pleasures, and were above 
the plain rough work of revivals and awakenings, 
one who has left a memory which is to this day 
blessed, raising up even now spiritual children to 
perpetuate his fruit to other generations—you 
may follow him. But surely you would never 
think of following in the track of those whose 
labors have been succeeded by a blight, or whose 
names, if remembered at all, are remembered, not 
as a blessing to the world, but simply as an ex¬ 
ample of talent! Surely you would wish rather 


PRACTICAL LESSONS. 


375 


to be one of those whom grandsires shall speak 
of to their grandchildren as haying been the 
means of saving such a man, of kindling such a 
revival, of introducing a new religious era into 
the history of such a village, or of first carrying 
the gospel to some people to whom Christ was a 
stranger. You will find that all those upon whose 
memories the blessings of living men rest, were 
those who most gave themselves to accomplish the 
salvation of sinners, who gloried in the cross, who 
trusted in the Holy Ghost, and who, whether 
their tongue was that of a Boanerges or that of a 
Barnabas, ever took care, by solitary waiting be¬ 
fore the Bedeemer’s throne, to have it so imbued 
with the Holy Ghost, that it was, at least, a 
“tongue of fire.” 

We do not feel that we have said what we had 
to say. In looking over this little book, we can 
hardly believe that it is all that the feelings and 
thoughts with which we began it have produced. 
But, such as it is, let it go out to the world, to 
be rebuked where it errs, to be unheeded where 
it is feeble, to be blessed where it is true and 
strong. 

And now, adorable Spirit, proceeding from the 
Father and the Son, descend upon all the Church¬ 
es, renew the Pentecost in this our age, and bap- 


376 


THE TONGUE OF FIRE. 


tize thy people generally—0, baptize them yet 
again with tongues of fire! Crown this nine¬ 
teenth century with a revival of u pure and un¬ 
defiled religion” greater than that of the last 
century, greater than that of the first, greater 
than any “ demonstration of the Spirit” ever yet 
vouchsafed to men! 


THE END. 









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